For the third straight year, the city of Oakland marked a grim milestone: more than 100 murders. We spent a day with an OPD homicide investigator as the department and the city grapple with another deadly year.
, in addition to high visibility patrols during the holiday season. He announced the initial plan in September after eight people were killed in a seven-day period. The plan includes adding officers permanently to its criminal investigations division. Staffing remains an ongoing issue Allen says. The department currently has 15 homicide investigators. Each investigator receives an average of 8 to 10 cases per year, a load that grows with each unsolved crime in the city.
In addition to following leads on her several cases, Officer Allen says she takes calls from family members of victims regularly. "They just want to make sure their loved one isn’t forgotten and make sure their case isn’t going to be swept under the rug," said Allen. "I want them to know that would not be the case, that’s not something we would do, we investigate every case to the fullest extent.
Allen says she empathizes with people like Roberson and says what drives her is being able to clear cases and give these families some small sense of justice. "It’s what we do this work for; every case that we get, we go in thinking I’m going to solve this case, we’re going to get justice for this family," said Allen. "It’s what we strive for."
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