The Oakland Police Commission is asking for public input on potential changes to the police department’s vehicle pursuit policy at two upcoming forums.
The proposal to update the policy came after criticism from Gov. Gavin Newsom about the city’s pursuit policy as he assigned more California Highway Patrol officers to help patrol the city.
The first opportunity for the public to weigh in will be at a special meeting of the Police Commission at 5:30 p.m. Friday at City Hall.
A community town hall will also be held on Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at East Bay Church of Religious Science, located at 4130 Telegraph Ave. Remote access will be available, but no comments will be taken from remote participants.
The town hall will serve as an “informal discussion” on what the community wants from a police pursuit policy, according to the Commission.
The policy is written by the police department, but the police commission can provide guidance and comments. The police department is in the process of drafting a new policy.
The current policy states that pursuits, “may only be initiated when there is reasonable suspicion to believe the suspect committed a violent forcible crime and/or a crime involving the use of a firearm, or probable cause that the suspect is in possession of a firearm,” according to the Oakland Police Department.
Examples of a violent forcible crime include murder, kidnapping, carjacking, sexual assault and several other violent crimes, like possession of weapons of mass destruction.
In Oakland, there were 600 police pursuits between 2018 and the end of November 2023, according to the most recent city data available. About 1% of chases ended with a collision involving a fatality, while 7% involved an injury and 46% resulted in property damage.
The city’s numbers had slightly improved by 2022, but still more than a third of all pursuits ended in a collision involving property damage, compared to about 12% statewide, according to data from the OPD and CHP.
The most common reasons for initiating a pursuit were suspected instances of carjacking with a firearm, robberies involving a firearm, knife or cutting instrument, and assault with a firearm on a person.
Despite the policy’s restrictions, Oakland’s statistics were worse than the statewide average, according to data from the California Highway Patrol, which is required by law to collect pursuit data from each law enforcement agency in the state and make an annual report to the legislature.
The last report available via the CHP’s website was from the report in June 2023, covering data from 2022.
That year, among all law enforcement agencies statewide, about 0.3% of pursuits resulted in a fatal collision, while 6.7% involved an injury collision and about 12% resulted in property damage alone.
In pursuits involving the CHP, about 0.4% of pursuits resulted in a fatal collision, 5% resulted in an injury collision, and about 9% resulted in a non-injury collision.
The discrepancy came despite the fact that, statewide, pursuits were most often initiated for reasons like speeding, stolen vehicles, registration or license plate violations, or other misdemeanor traffic violations, most of which would be precluded under the OPD policy.
In 2023, Newsom responded to a request from then-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao for more law enforcement resources by assigning CHP officers to help police city streets. In July 2024 he roughly quadrupled the number of shifts worked by CHP from 42 to 162.
In late December, Newsom announced the CHP’s extra presence would be extended, but only if the city made changes to its non-pursuit policy.
“We’re going to extend that commitment, but not for an open-ended period of time,” Newsom said at the time.
“We’re at that point in time that we need to see some commensurate support and reforms and changes as it relates to policing. Here in Oakland, in order to consider extending this state subsidized partnership, we specifically are going to need to see changes in the pursuit policy,” he said.
In a press release announcing the public forums, the police commission responded to the critique by saying that it supported the current policy but would also support exploring changes.
“Research presented to the commission clearly demonstrated that an increase in high-speed chases would lead to more injuries and fatalities among innocent bystanders in our city,” the commission said. “Based on this evidence, the commission unanimously supported OPD’s current policy and, in a memo sent in September 2024, recommended that the City Council Public Safety Committee consider potential revisions to the policy.
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