Report On Chief Batts At Oakland Police Officers' Association

MIke Ferro, OPOA Meeting, November 8, 2009

I am writing with my impression of Oakland’s new police chief Tony Batts. I heard him speak last night at a meeting of Oakland’s Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils at the Oakland Police Officers’ Association.

He is quite articulate and thoughtful. I will cover some of his important specifics about policing later. He certainly seems to have excellent leadership qualities--he is engaging, down-to-earth and frank. He spoke about doing new things, about taking risks and about having reasonable expectations given the very limited resources here.

Leadership is especially important in Oakland where we have many well-intended and thoughtful public officials and far too few competent leaders.

With police matters we have in Oakland a slew of serious problems:

1. Many citizens, from all socio-economic groups and all sorts of political organizations, are poorly-informed and negatively prejudiced against the Police Department.

2. Most citizens do not understand proven contemporary police theory and practice.

3. Citizens do not understand how the Oakland Police Department works.

4. Police/community communication is far from what it needs to be despite some excellent efforts.

5. The Oakland Department has legal, economic and other resource limitations which will require creative approaches to overcome.

6. Last, and at the heart of our police-related problems, are the ongoing quality-of-life issues (urban blight, public prostitution and drug-dealing, gang domination of certain streets, litter, graffiti, boomer cars, aggressive and inattentive driving, etc.) and violence and property crimes which plague this city and keep it from being all it might be given the essential vitality of its citizens and its natural endowments.

Chief Batts began his talk with a very important point: the Police Department is a fundamental economic development tool for Oakland. Unless this city can overcome its quality-of-life and crime problems, it’s unlikely to attract the new business it needs and deserves.

Most of Oakland’s violent crime is done by youngsters in gangs. The emblematic figure is the 13-year-old with a gun. The solutions lie in social opportunites and support other than gangs and in jobs and in education. The Oakland community must provide these solutions. Chief Batts envisions applying for grants for help in providing these solutions.

Batts is clear that if quality-of-life and crime problems persist, then doing the same old things in response to these problems is never going to solve them. This may seem obvious, but so much of what we do does not work, has not worked and yet we persist. The sideshow problem has been going on for 20 years. Time for something new.

Batts offers a new and creative approach to the sideshows: Police Department detectives are tracing the cellphone calls made by the phones confiscated from those arrested last week. Those who organized the sideshows by text messages potentially can be charged with homicide because of the deaths resulting from their behavior. Batts doesn’t know whether this will work or whether the D.A. will cooperate. If it doesn’t work, he’ll try something else new.  This is known as problem-solving.

Batts is tough-minded. He talked about curfews, a word no one likes to use. But he knows that getting kids off the streets between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am will save lives. Whatever you call it, if it works it should be tried.

It seems to me we may well have in Tony Batts the new Police Chief that we need. He talks the talk very well. He’s a real leader. Whether he walks the walk will probably depend less on what he says and does than on the support we provide as concerned citizens and members of political organizations.

Report On Chief Batts At Oakland Police Officers' Association

MIke Ferro, OPOA Meeting, November 8, 2009

I am writing with my impression of Oakland’s new police chief Tony Batts. I heard him speak last night at a meeting of Oakland’s Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils at the Oakland Police Officers’ Association.

He is quite articulate and thoughtful. I will cover some of his important specifics about policing later. He certainly seems to have excellent leadership qualities--he is engaging, down-to-earth and frank. He spoke about doing new things, about taking risks and about having reasonable expectations given the very limited resources here.

Leadership is especially important in Oakland where we have many well-intended and thoughtful public officials and far too few competent leaders.

With police matters we have in Oakland a slew of serious problems:

1. Many citizens, from all socio-economic groups and all sorts of political organizations, are poorly-informed and negatively prejudiced against the Police Department.

2. Most citizens do not understand proven contemporary police theory and practice.

3. Citizens do not understand how the Oakland Police Department works.

4. Police/community communication is far from what it needs to be despite some excellent efforts.

5. The Oakland Department has legal, economic and other resource limitations which will require creative approaches to overcome.

6. Last, and at the heart of our police-related problems, are the ongoing quality-of-life issues (urban blight, public prostitution and drug-dealing, gang domination of certain streets, litter, graffiti, boomer cars, aggressive and inattentive driving, etc.) and violence and property crimes which plague this city and keep it from being all it might be given the essential vitality of its citizens and its natural endowments.

Chief Batts began his talk with a very important point: the Police Department is a fundamental economic development tool for Oakland. Unless this city can overcome its quality-of-life and crime problems, it’s unlikely to attract the new business it needs and deserves.

Most of Oakland’s violent crime is done by youngsters in gangs. The emblematic figure is the 13-year-old with a gun. The solutions lie in social opportunites and support other than gangs and in jobs and in education. The Oakland community must provide these solutions. Chief Batts envisions applying for grants for help in providing these solutions.

Batts is clear that if quality-of-life and crime problems persist, then doing the same old things in response to these problems is never going to solve them. This may seem obvious, but so much of what we do does not work, has not worked and yet we persist. The sideshow problem has been going on for 20 years. Time for something new.

Batts offers a new and creative approach to the sideshows: Police Department detectives are tracing the cellphone calls made by the phones confiscated from those arrested last week. Those who organized the sideshows by text messages potentially can be charged with homicide because of the deaths resulting from their behavior. Batts doesn’t know whether this will work or whether the D.A. will cooperate. If it doesn’t work, he’ll try something else new.  This is known as problem-solving.

Batts is tough-minded. He talked about curfews, a word no one likes to use. But he knows that getting kids off the streets between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am will save lives. Whatever you call it, if it works it should be tried.

It seems to me we may well have in Tony Batts the new Police Chief that we need. He talks the talk very well. He’s a real leader. Whether he walks the walk will probably depend less on what he says and does than on the support we provide as concerned citizens and members of political organizations.