Oakland mayor touts public safety successes as stats tell a somewhat encouraging story

Leaders say the crime trends are turning a corner in the East Oakland neighborhood where In-N-Out will soon close.

OAKLAND — The city has witnessed continuous fallout from its struggles with crime, but somewhat encouraging recent data trends led Oakland’s leaders on Monday to suggest that their efforts to turn things around may be paying off.

Mayor Sheng Thao’s office is especially keen on promoting the work being done to quell crime in the area near the city’s airport, which centers around Hegenberger Road.

The commercial district has been plagued by a long history of burglaries and robberies that’s led businesses to shutter — including an In-N-Out burger location whose upcoming closure has drawn national headlines.

But community leaders say the situation is starting to improve, and they credit a $250,000 investment by the city last year in the nonprofit group Black Cultural Zone, which pays 35 “safety ambassadors” to bolster foot traffic on sidewalks and offer resources to those in need.

Meanwhile, an ongoing expansion into Oakland by the California Highway Patrol, which since last month has made 168 arrests throughout the city, has involved some focused enforcement on Hegenberger Road. More security cameras have been installed in the area, including at the airport.

The neighborhood is a “key gateway” into Oakland and a “vital element to our city’s economic engine,” in part because of its proximity to the Coliseum complex, Thao said Monday at a news conference.

“For far too long, this corridor has been ignored,” Thao said. “And I think that is a huge mistake.”

“If we take care of this corridor,” she continued, “we will see Oakland thriving a lot more than what we have seen in the past.”

Recent crime trends in both the area in question and across the city indicate positive momentum in some categories, though not in others.

Reports of burglaries this year had dropped by 47% citywide through March 10 compared to the same period of time in 2023, per data provided by the Oakland Police Department. Gunfire reports saw a 17% dip, but robberies had actually ticked up by 32%.

In the policing area that covers part of East Oakland, including the Hegenberger corridor, reported burglaries had declined 70% as of March 10 from year-to-date data last year, with gunfire down 18% and robberies up 36%.

It is a mixed bag of statistics over a relatively short window of time. Thao has promised the city’s renewed focus on its anti-violence program Ceasefire will help address more violent crimes, such as homicide.

“We are watching the numbers trend in the direction that we demanded and deserved — and we know there’s still so much to do,” said Councilmember Treva Reid, whose district includes the Hegenberger corridor, at Monday’s conference.

Reid and others reserved special praise for Black Cultural Zone, the nonprofit that staffs nearly three dozen community ambassadors to boost the general feeling of safety among East Oakland residents and businesses.

The ambassadors, hired mostly from the neighborhood, are paid $25 an hour to roam the sidewalks and spot people who might need help. Similar to MACRO, the city’s non-emergency response unit, the safety ambassadors do not actually intervene in crimes.

Greg Hodge, a longtime community leader who heads the nonprofit, said the added bustle on the sidewalks may sometimes be enough to ward off robberies.

“The implicit thing that’s happening is when there’s more people and more eyes out on the street, the less likely you’re going to have incidences of robberies,” Hodge, a former mayoral candidate, said in an interview.

The California Highway Patrol, meanwhile, made 168 arrests, recovered 360 stolen vehicles and seized 16 firearms since it began detailing officers to Oakland last month, the agency’s chief said at Monday’s conference.

The CHP did not immediately provide more information about these arrests and what criminal charges stemmed from them.

“To safeguard the integrity of this operation, the CHP is unable to disclose exact details” of its work in Oakland, Chief Don Goodbrand said.

In a city that’s often politically divided over efforts to curb crime, Monday’s event indicated some solidarity among two 2022 mayoral opponents — Thao and Reid -– along with law enforcement and local business leaders.

There was cause for optimism: the Roots and Soul, companion minor-league men’s and women’s soccer franchises, announced last week that they’ll begin playing home games at the Coliseum in 2025, returning a popular sports attraction to Oakland after two seasons in Hayward.

“This is just the beginning,” Thao said. “We will remain persistent and continue to do this work. I know that not only will we have the data to represent the successes we have, (but also) we’ll have a stronger and cleaner and safer Oakland.”