By Ken Epstein

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, just back from a Vietnam trade mission, spoke at a press conference this week to discuss the results of her international meetings and also to address community concerns about crime in the city.

She said she is “working day and night” to increase public safety: investing in violence prevention programs, seeking more funding to expand public safety resources, and collaborating with the governor to bring in the California Highway Patrol and Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

As the mayor of Oakland, she said, “I was able to call the governor directly, and this is now why we have the resources of CHP here in the City of Oakland.

Pointing out that the city now has the highest number of officers in uniform in the past three years, she said there is still work to be done to put the officers where they are needed most.

Thao also discussed the recent successful trade delegation to Vietnam, which ended Aug. 8 and included the mayor, Alameda County officials and Port of Oakland board members, and was designed to promote Oakland as a trading partner with Vietnam.

“This trip was an investment in Oakland’s future, by cultivating critical relationships that will grow our city’s economy” Thao said in a statement.

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The Oakland delegation met with representatives from private industry, Long An International Port, the mayors of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

In-depth discussions with Pham focused on climate change issues, including establishing “green corridors” for all Vietnam ports and the Port of Oakland.

Other productive meetings were held with several companies, including electric vehicle manufacturer, VinFast, where discussions focused on importing their vehicles through the Port of Oakland; and airline, VietJet, which launched discussions on a possible new international route to Oakland Airport. An MOU was signed with THACO Industries, a leading manufacturer in mechanical products and technology.

Elaborating on the city’s commitment to reduce crime and make Oakland residents safer, Mayor Thao said,
“To actually catch the perpetrators, that means we have to have the manpower for that. We are talking about how we free up our officers, whether it’s ‘civilianizing’ some positions, so we can get more officers doing investigative work.”

Despite inheriting a major deficit from the previous administration, the mayor said the city’s new budget did not cut funds for violence prevention and received $1.2 million from the state to fund technology upgrades.

Specifically, she said the city is expanding  Ceasefire, the Oakland Police Department’s anti-violence program,  installing more license plate readers throughout the city, and working with the sheriff’s office to set up check points for intoxicated drivers.

She added, “Arguably, I would say that crimes would be even higher than it is today if I were to have cut in my budget the programs for our after-school programming, for summer programming.”

Thao emphasized that the changes will not occur overnight, but the public can expect to see progress.

“Although this is a hard moment in time – this, too, shall pass,” she said. “Because we are now in the phase of implementing. But I promise you, you will start seeing some of those results moving forward, towards next year.”

Property crime in Oakland has increased 28%, according to an ABC7 report in July.  Homicides, so far, in 2023 are down 13% compared to 2022, while burglaries are up 41%. Vehicle thefts have increased 50%.

While rising crime is an issue that is frequently connected to “law and order” partisan political campaigns and is often viewed as an intensely local concern, the data points to more complex national reasons and solutions, spurred by the pandemic and other intersecting crises.

According to a report from the Brooking Institution in April, “Cities and towns of all sizes saw their murder rates increase … rising over 35% in cities with populations over 250,000; 40% percent in cities with populations of 100,000 to 250,000; and around 25% in cities with populations under 25,000.

In an article about “recent trends in violent crime,” from the Brennan Center for Justice, which opposes mass incarceration, the dramatic growth in crime across the country started during the pandemic.

“Despite politicized claims that this rise was the result of criminal justice reform in liberal-leaning jurisdictions, murders rose roughly equally in cities run by Republicans and cities run by Democrats. So-called red states actually saw some of the highest murder rates of all.

“This data makes it difficult to pin recent trends on local policy shifts and reveals the central flaw in arguments that seek to politicize a problem as complex as crime. Instead, the evidence points to broad national causes driving rising crime.”

This news story included reporting from KGO7, SF Chronicle, KRON4 and the Oakland Post.

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