So far, CHP operations in the East Bay have resulted in 562 arrests, the recovery of 1,162 stolen cars and the seizure of 55 firearms linked to crimes, according to the governor.
The February deployment led to the creation of a CHP crime suppression team that patrols hotspots such as Hegenberger Road in East Oakland. The CHP team also collaborates with other agencies on sideshow operations, combating vehicle theft, recovering cargo containers stolen from the Port of Oakland and tackling fencing operations at Oakland flea markets, among other things.
The number of CHP officers on assignment in Oakland each week will rise from seven to 20.
“I am deeply grateful to Governor Newsom for providing these critical resources to support Oakland’s public safety strategy,” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement. “After years of rising crime rates, we are seeing a steady decrease — and we know this is in part because of the strong partnership between the Oakland Police Department and the California Highway Patrol.”
The announcement of the increased CHP presence comes amid reports that Newsom is rescinding an offer to send state attorneys to Oakland to help prosecute serious and complex crimes. The state provided similar assistance to San Francisco’s district attorney for fentanyl trafficking prosecutions last year. In a letter sent to Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price Wednesday, Newsom’s administration accused Price’s office of failing to make use of the state’s resources.
“Our hope was that these resources could be used to support efforts to prosecute violent and drug-related crimes and meaningfully improve public safety in Alameda County,” Ann Patterson, Newsom’s cabinet secretary, wrote. “Despite our outreach, your office has yet to make use of these resources.”
“We are mindful that we need to be more aggressive as it relates to the investigations and accountability, the prosecution of some of these cases.” Newsom said at the press conference. “So we’re moving forward.”
He added that the California National Guard attorney intended for the Alameda County DA’s office is being sent to the state Attorney General’s office, where they will prosecute state led cases involving crimes committed in Alameda County.
In a separate press conference Thursday afternoon, Price said Newsom’s characterization of her interest in the assistance was incorrect and misleading.
She said her office was offered one attorney to work on drug cases for 60 days with the possibility of extending to 90 days. She said her deputies were provided a written agreement to bring on that attorney in April and were working to finalize it. She said miscommunication, summer vacations and other bureaucratic hurdles had led to delays.
“My primary concern was the amount of time that, if we’re going to bring someone on and train them and embed them in the office, I would want them to be here longer,” she said.
“The devil is in the details,” Price continued. “And those details were in the process of being worked out. I hope that the governor will get the facts and call us.”
The plan to send state prosecutors to Oakland, announced in February, came on the heels of the governor’s decision to send 120 CHP officers to Oakland, where violent crimes — homicide, aggravated assault, robbery and rape — rose 21% from 2022 to 2023, according to Oakland Police Department data.
The Citywide Weekly Crime Report posted earlier this week by OPD shows that violent crime is down 13% from this point in 2023. But on Wednesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Oakland has been publishing misleading crime data for years.
While crime was almost certainly down in Oakland through April, the Chronicle’s review of flawed Oakland police data found the city has been overstating the crime reduction, though it did find OPD’s data for homicides and violent crimes to be “mostly accurate.”
At the Newsom press conference, Mitchell acknowledged the lag in the department’s reporting on property crime, however he insisted the data on crimes against people, like homicide and assault, are accurate. He said the department is in the process of implementing a new computer-aided dispatch program and a new records management system.
