Busy night as Oakland City Council OKs crime strategies while cops chase calls
OAKLAND, Calif. - At a marathon council meeting that went into Wednesday morning, Oakland city leaders approved a multifaceted crime prevention plan.
The plan includes hiring additional 911 dispatchers and officers, installation of cameras on freeway ramps and business districts. Also included was a concerted effort to get help from outside law enforcement agencies, like the California Highway Patrol and FBI.
Although these measures will require time for implementation, the city has already taken immediate steps. It matched a federal grant, which has bolstered the number of officers patrolling the streets.
Interim Oakland Police Chief Darren Allison said that arrests are just one way to hold people accountable.
He underscored that effective crime-fighting entails a combination of efforts: "to have some kind of engagement where it disrupts that life of crime, or if that intervention is not accepted, that there is custody for those individuals who want to continue to harm our community."
The council also voted to reinstate funding for violence prevention programs.
"Our violence interrupters and our youth education programs are two critical means we have to fight crime and improve public safety," said James Burch, deputy director of the Anti Police-Terror Project.
During the city council meeting, which started Tuesday, police were busy across the city.
At about 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a 13-year-old boy was shot in the leg and grazed in the head near a market at 23rd Avenue and East 21st Street.
About an hour later, San Francisco police pursued a carload of robbery suspects across the Bay Bridge into Oakland.
Video footage captured part of the high-speed chase as it continued onto eastbound Highway 24, near Broadway, with SFPD cruisers pursuing a blacked-out Hyundai Accent.
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The chase concluded near the Fruitvale BART station, resulting in the arrest of two juveniles and 22-year-old Jordan Tisnado, a two-time finalist for the Oakland youth poet laureate. Among the items found in the vehicle were a Louis Vuitton purse, a matching clutch, and a Fendi garment bag.
At around midnight, a report of shots fired led to the discovery of four stolen vehicles on Santa Rita Street. Officers found shell casings but no victims of gunfire.
Then at 12:20 a.m. on Wednesday, a man was fatally shot while driving near the intersection of 14th Avenue and International Boulevard. He subsequently crashed near a fire station close to 12th and International.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan.