Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s Email On Limiting Police Commission Powers Was Wrong
ONN – Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s Email On Limiting Police Commission Powers Was Wrong
The Mayor of Oakland sent an email that describes the Oakland Police Commission as a “citizens committee” as if that’s a bad thing. It was poorly conceived and considered.
And it’s here:
ACTION ALERT
Dear Oaklanders,
The Council will be voting TOMORROW on a proposal by Councilmembers Kaplan and Kalb that could seriously compromise public safety.
It would allow Oakland’s Police Commission – a group of citizen volunteers — to override any police operational decision, divert limited public safety resources, and prevent rapid response to public safety emergencies.
Currently, Oakland’s Police Commission is the most powerful and independent Police Commission in the country. The Commission currently has policy-making authority over issues of high public concern, including use of force, officer discipline and accountability, racial profiling and racial bias and more.
But a proposal from Councilmembers Kaplan and Kalb would expand that policy-making authority to EVERYTHING – including highly technical operational and tactical practices that could conflict with California’s best practices, multi-agency disaster response, and standardized training.
Additionally, the proposal lacks even an exigency clause that would, in the case of public safety emergencies, give the Chief the ability to take action without waiting weeks to come before the Commission.
Please tell the Council that:
The Police Commission’s policy-making authority and focus should remain over the critical areas where it is today, and
The Chief needs the ability to respond to public safety emergencies.
Please email [email protected] with this urgent message and speak up at tomorrow’s City Council meeting at 1:30pm (instructions below).
Be well,
LibbyP.S. To be clear, I supported Measure LL and I support the primary purpose of this proposal, which is to give Oakland’s Police Commission the independent authority to manage their own agency director, legal counsel and Inspector General. You can read the Administration’s full report and analysis here.
P.P.S. You can participate in the Oakland City Council’s meeting tomorrow at 1:30pm by video conference.
To observe the meeting by video conference, please click on this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/99184628572 at the noticed meeting time of 1:30pm.
To listen to the meeting by phone, please call the numbers below at the noticed meeting time: Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 929 436 2866 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 Webinar ID: 991 8462 8572 If asked for a participant ID or code, press #.
COMMENT: ALL PUBLIC COMMENT ON ACTION ITEMS WILL BE TAKEN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MEETING UNDER ITEM 1.
Note that while all public comment is taken under Item 1, the Police Commission Ballot Measure is the last item on tomorrow’s agenda — Item 4.
To comment by Zoom video conference, click the “Raise Your Hand” button to request to speak when Public Comment is being taken on a eligible agenda item at the beginning of the meeting. You will then be unmuted, during your turn, and allowed to participate in public comment. After the allotted time, you will then be re-muted. Instructions on how to “Raise Your Hand” is available at: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/205566129
To comment by phone, please call on one of the above listed phone numbers. You will be prompted to “Raise Your Hand” by pressing “*9” to request to speak when Public Comment is being taken on a eligible agenda Item at the beginning of the meeting. You will then be unmuted, during your turn, and allowed to make public comments. After the allotted time, you will then be re-muted. Instructions of how to raise your hand by phone are available at: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362663.
If you have any questions, please email Asha Reed, Assistant City Clerk at [email protected].
It’s hard to find a majority of Oaklanders who favor what the Mayor of Oakland wrote. But I know former Oakland Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente does.
Stay tuned.
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.