Summit Meeting on Police Understaffing

Mayor Ron Dellums spoke about police staffing at his state of the city address. In the speech, delivered Jan. 14, 2008, he called for reaching the currently authorized total of 803 officers by the end of the year, "whatever it takes." Oakland employed 736 police as of the mayor's speech.

Dellums also promised a public safety summit to get serious about how many police Oakland really needs. People could thrash out why we need more officers (that's easy: look at depoliced Oakland today, ranked the fourth most dangerous city in the country) along with the financial and policy considerations.

For an audio clip of his remarks on these points, click here (1 minute 15 seconds).

At a town hall meeting last October, the mayor responded to calls for at least 1,100 police in this city of 400,000 people. He said, "If you want to go to 1,100, then let's have that conversation. ... If people decide in this community they want 1,100 police, then let's go there."

Oakland heard nothing more from the mayor until the Jan. 14 speech. Now we await the public safety summit, expecting that his office will prominently include in the event activists campaigning for at least 1,100 police.