Community Policing

[cawacko]

We hear a lot about community policing and having officers live in the neighborhood they patrol. A girl who sits next to me at work said her brother works for the Oakland PD and lives in Oakland. He was getting threats and now has to move out of Oakland.

I believe we have at least one police officer on this board. What is your though on living in the City where you work?

 

[cawacko]

Taft, your a P.O. right? What do you think of this?

 

[Taft2016]

That's a very complicated question.

In NYC we have 77 precincts. You can live in the city, but not in the precinct you work in.

That's for reasons like you mentioned, but also corruption hazards.

"Community policing" is a broad concept which does not necessarily include officers living where they work.

There are positive elements to it, but there's a tendency to over balance the community aspect at the expense of pro-active police work. And that's regressive if crime rates creep back up.

Also, there needs to be a legitimate community to work with. We tried it pre-Giuliani and it was a dismal failure because the "communities" were like Berlin in 1945. Bombed out and overrun with crime.

So places like Detroit and Chicago are unsuitable for it. I don't know about Oakland.

The positive is the community talking to the police, because they have the information we need many times. Without them, the bad guys often go unpunished.

 

[Bill]

Oakland has a pretty high crime rate in every category..

The worst part of the equation is the lack of funding & lack of officers actually on the street & able to do anything..

 

[cawacko]

Oakland has a pretty high crime rate in every category..

The worst part of the equation is the lack of funding & lack of officers actually on the street & able to do anything..

The idea of community policing is far bigger than just Oakland.

As for Oakland and funding one of the reasons for Oakland's funding issues is the amount of money owed for pensions to past officers. That's another topic however