Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf proposes 40 new police officers

Members of the 170th class of Oakland Police Department take their seats for graduation addresses in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, October 31, 2014. Members of the 170th class of Oakland Police Department take their seats for graduation addresses in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, October 31, 2014. Photo: Sarah Rice, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Sarah Rice, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf proposes 40 new police officers 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

In her first budget since being elected on the promise that she would strengthen public safety in Oakland, Mayor Libby Schaaf is pushing a plan to boost the city’s police force by 40 sworn officers.

That would bring the total number of police officers to 762 over the next two years, the highest that Oakland has seen since 2010, when the city had 780. Schaaf hopes the hiring of more officers would help solve a problem that’s become “overwhelmingly the highest priority in Oakland,” as she wrote in a budget proposal she will present to the City Council on Tuesday.

“I think we all know that Oakland is very short on police, that it’s a very urgent need,” the mayor said in an interview.

The city budget director projected that 40 additional police jobs would cost the city about $6.7 million beginning in 2016, which Schaaf will account for by freezing vacant positions. The $2.4 billion overall budget for 2015-17 includes enough anticipated revenue to mend an $18 million shortfall this year.

Oakland’s need for a strong police force has long been at cross-purposes with its citizens’ desire for police reform, putting leaders in an awkward spot. A corruption scandal settled in 2003 made the Police Department beholden to a court-appointed monitor, even as officers faced an avalanche of crime.

And according to the Police Department’s own data, staffing for the past 15 years has been abysmal. Layoffs reduced the force from 830 sworn officers in 2009 to 613 in 2013. Oakland has witnessed a spate of troubling, high-profile crimes in recent years — including the 2011 stray-bullet killing of 3-year-old Carlos Nava, whose mother was pushing him in a stroller in East Oakland; and the March death of Chyemil Pierce, who was caught in a cross fire while walking her children home. Over the last two years, some neighborhood associations have begun hiring private security guards to patrol outside their homes.

Records show that Oakland’s police staff dipped incrementally during former Mayor Jean Quan’s administration, before rising this year. The crime rate rankled neighborhood-watch groups, whose members accused Quan of neglecting her constituents.

“Our perception is that (Quan) gave public safety an extremely low priority,” said Charles Pine, spokesman for the group Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods.

Campaign issue

Schaaf distinguished herself by making crime-fighting a linchpin of her November election bid. Now, she’s turned it into a major area of investment, not only by proposing to beef up staff but also by asking for two auditors to join the Police Department’s office that monitors police misconduct, and boosting the Ceasefire program from four to 10 case managers.

To lawyer Harry Stern, a former Berkeley police officer who now represents police officers in misconduct cases, Schaaf’s proposed staffing increase is a good start, though he believes the mayor will have to do a lot more to boost department morale.

“If you follow what’s actually going on in the streets, you’ve got a beleaguered police force that’s completely understaffed,” Stern said. “You’ve got very serious, violent crimes in progress that aren’t being responded to in anything like a timely fashion. It’s nothing to do with the desire of the men and women in Oakland Police Department. It’s just that they’re spread paper thin.”

Yet Oakland police also face mistrust and criticism from vocal citizens who are quick to protest when police violence happens in other cities. The most recent instance came Friday, when a march to show support for Freddie Gray, who died after being injured in police custody in Baltimore last month, culminated in what Police Chief Sean Whent called some of the worst violence he’s seen in years.

Priorities criticized

Although police staffing decreased under Quan, some activists contend the force is still too powerful.

“Until we have mayors who talk about allocating the vast majority of the budget to social services, then public safety isn’t being addressed,” said Cat Brooks, founder of ONYX/The Anti-Police Terrorism Project, a group that condemns officer use of force.

Councilman Noel Gallo, who will get an opportunity to critique the budget Tuesday, said he’s seen an uptick in armed robberies and assaults in the Fruitvale neighborhood he represents.

Oakland Police Department’s March quarterly crime report revealed 23 homicides, 930 robberies and more than 3,000 burglaries in the first quarter of the year citywide. The number of homicides and burglaries are about the same as last year, while robberies increased by 7 percent.

Gallo, who serves on the council’s public safety committee, deemed the proposed additional officers “a step in the right direction.”

Schaaf’s budget sets a goal for 800 sworn officers by 2018. To reach it, she’s hoping to fund five training academies and a “pipeline project” that will reserve 40 spots in the city’s cadet program for Oakland public school graduates.

Stern applauds her efforts, but cautions that crime-fighting in Oakland isn’t just about boots on the ground.

To him it requires an almost philosophical approach.

“Adding more cops to the force in Oakland is critical,” he said. “But more important is what they are doing once they are there.”

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: rswan@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @rachelswan