Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered cops and lawyers from state agencies to assist in Oakland and other cities. Not everyone is thrilled.
A patrol vehicle pulls into the California Highway Patrol office in Oakland on Aug. 13, 2024. Photo by Florence Middleton, CalMattersGov. Gavin Newsom has taken to using state resources to fight crime on a local level. Not everyone in the cities he’s taken an interest in is thrilled with the results.
Newsom has called the CHP “the Swiss Army knife of law enforcement in the state,” and said the agency’s job in Oakland is “not to substitute, but to support” the work of city officials. He’s said the surge is temporary and will last into November.“We’re encouraged by local reporting that crime is going down,” Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos said Friday. “It’s a step in the right direction for the Oakland community, but there is more work to do.
“We need to figure out how to support small businesses, especially those getting broken into, and we need to stop the flow of gun violence on our streets,” he said. “We don’t see CHP having the skills, the experience, the technical know-how to address these issues.” At a July press conference, Newsom said a CHP crackdown on things like sideshows and DUIs can help free up local law enforcement to focus on other crimes. And Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell said research shows that traffic stops can depress crime in an area for hours after the stop occurs.
“Oakland was starting to get a reputation like, ‘Hey, come on over, it’s a grocery store. You can get anything you want and walk right out,’ ” she said. The CHP and the Oakland Police Department have since signed an agreement to each take custody of some of the cameras, and share the data between agencies. The company providing them, Flock Safety, will delete the videos after 30 days. CHP will front the money for the cameras, with Oakland to pay the state back within a year.when they have a reasonable suspicion that the person they’re chasing has committed a violent crime or has a gun.
Burris also represented the family of Erik Salgado, who CHP officers shot to death after Salgado fled a traffic stop in Oakland in 2020. The CHP settled that case for $7 million last year, and some police accountability activists cite the agency’s chase policy as a factor in the killing. Differences in law enforcement policy can lead to jurisdictional battles. Oakland’s police pulled out of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2020, and San Francisco’s did in 2017 after participating for at least a decade, after civil liberties advocates raised concerns about FBI surveillance and profiling of ethnic and religious groups, immigrants and political protesters.
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