In the latest bid to curb local crime levels that have drawn national attention, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday ordered the California Highway Patrol to temporarily flood Oakland and the East Bay with 120 extra officers, one of the largest law enforcement surges to hit the region in recent memory.
Newsom promised that the swell of CHP officers — who began their deployment Tuesday — will work with local agencies to tackle a broad range of criminal activity, including vehicle theft, retail theft, cargo theft and violent crime. The boost will include “specialized units” as well as “advanced investigative technology,” though the governor’s statement offered few details as to what those measures might entail.
The influx represents a nine-fold increase in the number of CHP personnel in Oakland and Alameda County and comes amid stubbornly high crime rates in Oakland and a wave of business closings often attributed to robberies and car-break-ins. Unlike other major cities, Oakland’s precipitous rise in crime since 2020 still has yet to recede to pre-pandemic levels.
It also arrives in a region long suspicious of law enforcement after a host of policing scandals and violent encounters — among them the June 2020 killing of Erik Salgado by CHP officers.
Community violence prevention nonprofits and police accountability groups voiced distrust of a plan to thrust so many new officers into a region in so little time. Ricardo Garcia-Acosta, director of Community Peace at the violence prevention nonprofit CURYJ, questioned why he had only heard of the surge from media reports — saying “we as a community-based provider are in the dark.”
“It’s not that the Oakland Police Department is understaffed — it’s that the way they utilize the staff they do have is inefficient,” said Cat Brooks, executive director of the Anti Police-Terror Project. She voiced concerns that the influx of officers could lead to an increase in police violence: “Part of my frustration is we keep investing in the same failed strategy.”
But Mayor Sheng Thao lauded the move, as did the Oakland Police Officers’ Association. The Oakland Metro Chamber of Commerce said it was “grateful” for the decision, while Oakland Councilmember Noel Gallo, a frequent critic of the city’s crime woes, hailed the surge as “long overdue.”
“We’ve had an emergency for a long time and for me — whether it’s the highway patrol, the national guard — we need assistance with public safety,” Gallo said.
Other reactions were mixed: The Oakland NAACP praised Newsom for shuffling officers to the city while blasting Thao and city leaders for not doing more to stem the tide of violence in the first place. The statement noted the city’s failure to apply for a state retail theft grant before a key deadline, as well as a year-long absence of a permanent police chief after the firing of former Chief LeRonne Armstrong.
Few specifics were detailed in Newsom’s announcement Tuesday. The 120 officers will operate throughout the East Bay — not only freeways and roads once designated as state highways, such as International Boulevard and San Pablo Avenue, but also on city streets, authorities said. They plan to use license plate readers to spot stolen vehicles. And the plan includes the deployment of “specialized” units, including officers with K9s and “air support,” the statement said.
In ordering the surge, Newsom pointed to persistently high crime rates in the East Bay, particularly Oakland. Homicides have remained stubbornly high in Oakland — topping 100 for four straight years — while robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts all jumped in 2023.
Newsom has ordered CHP officers to Oakland at least twice in recent years, once in September 2021 and again in August 2023, with the aim of combatting everything from sideshows to reckless driving to stolen cars and highway shootings.
The most recent intervention in August led to the arrest of 100 people and the recovery of 193 stolen vehicles across Oakland, according to the governor’s announcement. A similar boost in staffing across the bay in San Francisco led to 460 arrests and thousands of citations, along with the seizure of 18.1 kilograms of fentanyl, the statement said.
Yet the sheer volume of incoming officers is unlike anything in recent memory. The August 2023 surge, for example, included fewer than a dozen officers and a supervisor, said Huy Nguyen, president of Oakland Police Officers’ Association.
“What’s happening in this beautiful city and surrounding area is alarming and unacceptable,” Newsom’s statement said. “I’m sending the California Highway Patrol to assist local efforts to restore a sense of safety that the hardworking people of Oakland and the East Bay demand and deserve.”
For Oakland business owners — some of whom have garnered national headlines for closing while publicly blaming the city’s crime problem — Newsom’s plan stirred a range of feelings. Few said they were satisfied with how law enforcement has handled the issue to date.
“Every single time we need to call the police, we get put on hold, so I usually don’t even call them,” said Jade Herrera, a manager at Café of the Bay in the Laurel neighborhood. “We can just hire a lot of private security to deal with it. The few times police have shown up, they take a statement. Nothing ever comes of it.”
But installing security cameras and hiring extra muscle haven’t quite worked either, Herrera added, noting that burglaries, car break-ins and daytime thefts are part of everyday life.
The family-run Los Costeñitas on High Street opened just a few years ago and hasn’t seen such problems, but worker Oscar Barrea said his “auntie gets scared” when closing up at night.
More officers, he said, “wouldn’t bother us — she’s in here with just her son.”
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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