With more than 400,000 inhabitants, Oakland, a city located in California, has faced a rising crime wave over the last three years.
According to information from the portal National Reviewciting a police report released this Tuesday (9), since 2020 thefts in the city have increased by 99%, motor vehicle thefts have increased by 72%, robberies have increased by 53% and homicides have increased by 16%.
While these crime rates continue to grow, the number of criminals who were arrested has been reduced by half, which is creating an even more worrying scenario for public safety.
The drop in the number of arrests is being accompanied by the difficulty of the local police department in filling the vacancies that are available to reinforce the security force.
The police force in Oakland, whose mayor is Sheng Thao, from the Democratic Party, was 749 in 2019. This number fell to 696 in 2023, with around 91 new retirements expected to occur in 2024.
According to the National Reviewonly 9.5% of Oakland's police force actually resides in the city, which indicates that the majority of officers working in the local police department have to commute from other cities or counties to work in Oakland.
Progressive prosecutor Pamela Price, responsible for Alameda County, where Oakland is located, has been singled out by residents as one of those responsible for this increase in crime. She took office in 2023 and is currently facing a replacement process due to her approach considered too “lenient” towards crime.
Price is a strong advocate for “police accountability and rehabilitation.” During her campaign for county attorney, she proposed working for “alternatives to incarceration.”
Because of this complicated scenario, California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is also a Democrat, decided to send about 120 highway patrol officers to Oakland, a clear attempt to combat crime and reverse the worrying trend that is affecting the lives of people's daily lives.
#Democratled #city #California #faces #increase #thefts