Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday despatched a letter to Oakland officers urging them to permit police to have interaction in additional automobile pursuits, contending that the constraints positioned on officers contribute to public security challenges within the metropolis.
The California Freeway Patrol impressed the governor’s missive after the company “noticed criminals fleeing with impunity” in the course of the governor’s marketing campaign to spice up legislation enforcement and scale back crime in a metropolis that has traditionally been some of the harmful within the state.
In a coverage Newsom described as an “outlier,” Oakland solely permits police chases when a suspect is armed with a gun or concerned in a forcible violent crime. The governor identified that not like in different cities, Oakland police can not pursue folks suspected of committing many felonies or any misdemeanor, comparable to reckless driving, sideshow exercise, and driving underneath the affect of medicine or alcohol.
“I urge you to rethink whether or not OPD needs to be permitted to pursue suspects in additional circumstances to enhance public security in your metropolis and to ascertain a course of to judge whether or not OPD is making full use of its authority, together with that granted underneath the prevailing pursuit coverage, to guard public security and implement the legislation,” Newsom wrote.
The governor’s letter, addressed to Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, the Oakland Metropolis Council and the Oakland Police Fee, laid out his help for a current Metropolis Council choice to overview the coverage.
A prime political matter within the 2024 election, crime has created stress on Newsom and different elected officers and bolstered criticism of California’s prison justice insurance policies.
Newsom ramped up police presence in Oakland in February with the deployment of 120 California Freeway Patrol officers to town underneath a state legislation enforcement marketing campaign concentrating on an uptick in violent crime and theft.
On the time, studies of In-N-Out Burger and different high-profile companies in Oakland closing attributable to crime had made headlines across the nation and raised questions on state coverage and the necessity for prison justice reform within the Golden State. In his letter, Newsom referenced viral movies and information protection “witnessed usually by the general public” that present the hazards of permitting prison acts, comparable to reckless driving at sideshows, to go unchecked.
The governor additionally acknowledged dangers related to pursuits, which he stated will be “harmful to police, suspects, and harmless bystanders.”
Newsom quadrupled the variety of shifts CHP officers carried out in Oakland two weeks in the past, with the objective of concentrating on organized crime, sideshows, carjackings, and different prison exercise over the subsequent 4 months.
Within the letter, the governor wrote that CHP “noticed suspects making an attempt to flee arrest through the use of the identical routes, concluding that they knew the place OPD would discontinue a pursuit” due to the pursuit coverage. As compared, CHP’s pursuit of suspects, with the assistance of air help, caught suspects in every of the six chases that state officers initiated.
The elevated CHP presence within the East Bay has resulted within the restoration of greater than 1,142 stolen automobiles, the seizure of 55 firearms, and the arrests of 562 suspects, in response to the governor’s workplace.
