Crime Stats, Oakland 2008
Below you’ll find 2007 and 2008 numbers reported for Part I crimes in Oakland as of June 26th (xls!).
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- len raphael: Unconfirmed that MJQ laid off 100 employees today, blaming RDA court case. How much did she and the CC waste in legal fees betting against Jerry’s lawyers?
- ralph: No, Livegreen, Occupy Oakland is doing plenty good. They are the poster children for the new, “This is Your Brain on Dope” Campaign.
- Livegreen: They seem to b determined to shut down Oakland and little else. They’ve forgotten Wall St. I can’t help but think the Officers who were preventing them from breaking in to City Hall could have spent...
- gregory mcconnell: The Occupest disrupted City Hall today. They managed to make it difficult, but not impossible, to go into City Hall. They demanded that people who accosted cops on Wednesday should be released. I was out...
- livegreen: I watched the M-Y mtg last night, & it was painful. Jose is a nice guy, but he has difficulty running a meeting that gets anything done. They debated for about 1 hour whether they should discuss recommendations...
- len raphael: The murder of 5 year old Gabriel Martinez. Got a call from an acquaintance who lives in East O and often gets supper at his family’s taco stand. She asked where she can sign up to help on the recall.
- Ravi: I’m sure that all of those Quan diehards (“a recall would be a waste of time and too expensive”) are very gratified that this lovely and deserving woman is having such a good time. No doubt they prefer...
- len raphael: JQ “”I’m actually having a lot of fun,” she said after rehashing many of the lower moments from her first year in office.” “http://www.insidebayare a.com/news/ci_19651889R...
- Ravi: And regarding police reform and the crime thing, Judge Henderson could decide to put OPD under Federal jurisdiction because the terms of the NSA haven’t been fulfilled by the City Administration. Those folks in City...
- len raphael: Harbinger of things to come to the City Council when they eventually have to make similar decisions. But they won’t. The Fed bankruptcy judge will do it for them.
- livegreen: Yeah, but OUSD has to do something. There are way too many schools for the school population. There’s simply no choice. At least they’re willing to make the tough decisions. Unlike the City of...
- len raphael: Are those school board recalls entirely over the school closing decisions? Different groups or one umbrella?
- Ravi: Two recall petitions for Quan; five recall petitions for five school board members.
- len raphael: City says there are now 7 concurrent recall petitions. Not clear how many are for Quan and how many for Council Members. Direct democracy at work.
- Ravi: Can the Oakland City Council lead? Nope, nor can the Mayor. It’s up to the citizens, who are deeply divided and have been for a very long time.
- len raphael: Oakland Local is the only on or offline general circulation media that shows understanding of the depths of our fiscal situation and understands that it’s causes precede the real estate crash. One of these...
- Mkilian: Related to the Cal Supremes haircut to Oakland with respect to RDA and the immediate need for a “fiscal operations plan” is another issue put forth in Oakland’s internet newspaper, Oakland Local, is...
25 Responses to “Crime Stats, Oakland 2008”
June 29th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Is there any way to get the 06 and 05 (or maybe even older?) stats?
The reason I’m curious about them is that it seems like everyone is *recently* saying that crime is out of control etc etc, but the stats make it appear that crime really isn’t spiraling out of control from 07 to 08. The numbers are high, but the differences aren’t so high that it should be causing a great outburst.
That makes me think that it actually had a big jump from one of the previous years, and by 2007 it was already bad. I wonder if that’s the case…
Regardless, thanks for posting this up. While I say that the differences aren’t that high, I’m sure any of the parents of the 65 homicide victims would say they’re far too high, and they’d be right
June 29th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
V. Smoothe’s article on
Crime over Time might have the stats you are looking for.
http://www.abetteroakland.com/crime-over-time/2007-11-14
Also rockridgeresidents.org posts crime stats done by Vivek
June 29th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Mike –
That’s doable, although not today. I find the year to date comparisons interesting, which is why I’m posting them (that and because I get a lot of search engine hits from people looking for current Oakland crime statistics), but they aren’t intended as an indication of long-term trends. I suppose I should do an updated version of the crime over time post to incorporate 2007 numbers.
I second the recommendation of Vivek’s crime posts on rockridgeresidents.org. You have to register to view them, but registration is free.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I wonder if the perception that crime is “out of control” is due to the number of recent high profile cases, such as the restaurant robberies, and where these crimes were/are occurring.
For example, I’ve lived in Eastlake for over a decade and last year was the first time I’d heard of so many armed robberies in this area. I know four people in a two block radius of my house who got robbed last year, my next door neighbor got mugged a couple months ago, and there was an attempted robbery at the liquor store down the street in April (this was the one where an employee ended up shooting the robber).
July 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
What these numbers do not reflect is all the crimes that don’t get reported. My vehicle has been broken into 5 times in the last 12 months, but only the the first incident was ever reported to the OPD and I’m not sure that really was either since I never filled out and returned the form they sent me. In fact, I never call the police for much of anything anymore. When a man was shot in front of my house a couple yrs ago I did call the OPD, but that is about the only thing I call for anymore because I don’t really expect the cops to show up in a timely manner, if at all and I don’t like sitting on hold waiting for a 911 operator.
Recently I had a crime issue in Alameda, I dealt with it on my own and went on about my day. I mentioned it that evening to a friend who lives in Alameda, she was aghast that I had not contacted the Alameda PD and she called them on the spot. They actually called me back at my home in Oakland, took a full report on the phone and even gave me phone numbers to call if this ever happens again. I guess I have forgotten what it is like to live in a normal place, with normal city services. Living in Oakland has trained me to never call the cops unless there is a dead body in front of the house. Sad state of affairs.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Avis,
Indeed, the incident only gets added to the stats if you return the form all filled out. I always encourage people to fill out the form even if they’re not reporting it to their insurance co. If you don’t report it doesn’t get counted.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:24 pm
avis – I think your attitude to reporting crive in Oakland is reasomable, since the last time I talked to an officer after an incident the response was, to paraphrase, “nobody was hurt, we really won’t spend any time nvestigating,” But, if it is not reported, then it doesn’t get added to the crime statistics, and we are actually underestimating the extrodinarily high crive rate in Oakalnd.
July 5th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Thanks for the props. FYI on the crime growth over 2005; i didn’t do the breakdown like VS did, but if you see here: (http://www.rockridgeresidents.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=358&Itemid=30) you’ll see that Oakland-wide violent crime median reports per month is up 77% from 2005. That, to me personally, is something to be incredibly concerned about. NOTE: I showed a 12% increase in violent crime over 2007, although that could be because my buckets vary from VS’s. I got a list of actual penal codes that are considered “crimes against a person” from OPD, it feels like my list may be larger than what is shown above. I counted all crimes in those codes, it’s a long list of penal codes but I can put them up online if folks are interested.
I’ve got all crime data from 2005->current, except 2006 cuz I can’t find it, loaded up in an Access db. It has penal codes, dates, times in it. That thread above has a link to a 12 page PDF with tons of graphs, if you want something let me know.
February 5th, 2009 at 9:19 am
If anyone actually takes the time to go back and really look at the crime rate in Oakland since 1989, it has steadily climbed each year. When the city you live in and run has one of the highest crime rates in the US, and it is steadily rising every year, WAKE UP, something is definitely wrong. Three main cities, SF, SJ, Oakland. If I was running this city and the crime rate was rising, I would look around at the neighboring cities and see what they are doing. SJ has 500,000 more people in their city with (for 1 year) 29 murders. Also, to Mike who commented previously, “65 in June not that bad.” That statisic was for only 6 months, by the end of the year December, it doubled. The people who are in power for the city of Oakland, need to take notes and learn. Not fall back on the same old excuses as to why there is so much crime in Oakland. There are no excuses, start acting like the cities that surround you. Mirror them, learn from them and you will soon become them. Any decent human being would rather live in a city that is not the crime capital of the US. It is so dishartening when every person you speak with outside of the town of Oakland is afraid to step foot in this town. WAKE UP!! people
February 5th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Oakland is demographically a very different city than San Jose. I think Oakland has more in common with Newark, NJ and Baltimore, MD than with its neighbor San Jose.
Newark, Baltimore, and Oakland are port cities. They grew because of ports and related industries. Those industries are dying in America and those cities are suffering because of it. Add a crack epidemic and the exodus of the Black middle class and you have the seeds of an urban crime problem.
February 5th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
The comparison with Newark is an interesting one. Newark is worse than Oakland in every single measurement of persistent poverty and other factors that tend to be strongly correlated with high crime rates. Yet Newark has less than half the violent crime per capita than Oakland.
February 5th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Newark also has a young, dynamic mayor. What do we have?
February 5th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Also, the Oakland Police Department has a very bad reputation with many black folks in Oakland, a bad reputation that goes back decades. As a result, the OPD might not be getting the level of cooperation that Newark might be getting. In some ways, Oakland is as southern as Baltimore.
February 5th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Newark is an interesting comparison because of both it’s proximity and it’s distance from New York. It’s definitely a better comparison than all those NYT blabberings about Brooklyn.
They do have the advantage of piggybacking on NYC’s utterly unfathomable wealth.
And James is right about their mayor. Invert his adjectives and you describe our Mayor.
February 5th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
In addition, you have people on Oakland’s City Council who seem to think Oakland is more like Berkeley than Newark. Berkeley can afford to ignore business development and to make it difficult for corporations. Oakland cannot. To make matters worse, the only local experience our mayor has is on Berkeley City Council.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I don’t think Newark is a good comparison to Oakland. First of all, Oakland is a much more cosmopolitan and diverse city with many affluent hillside neighborhoods with magnificent bay views. Oakland has great restaurants, vibrant and charming shopping districts, a lake in the middle of its downtown, three of the grandest historic theaters in the Country, three pro sports franchises, a great zoo, a wonderful museum, and a state- of- the -art science and space center, etc.. The climate the topography, and the relative wealth, are completely different. I don’t see the similarities. Are we making San Francisco into Manhattan in this comparison? If so, we are kidding ourselves. I’ve been to Manhattan, and San Francisco isn’t even close to being Manhattan.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
What on earth do historic theaters have to do with crime?
February 5th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Oakland is much more like Berkeley than Newark. How can Berkeley afford to ignore business development? We’re not talking about Beverly Hills here.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
V, Is this strictly a crime comparison?
February 5th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Berkeley has Cal which provides substantial economic stability for Berkeley residents. Oakland had the military, but they are gone and the port doesn’t provide adequate financial stability for the residents.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Newark is a city of 280,000 residents and has an area of only 24 square miles. Oakland has about 400,000 residents and has a land area of 56 square miles. Newark’s household income in 2000 was $26,000 compared to 40,000 for Oakland.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
What is you point, Navigator?
February 5th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Nav,
1. Are you pointing out that Newark and Oakland are not clones? I think we got that.
2. The fact that Newark is much poorer per capita would seem to make Oakland’s higher crime rate LESS excusable, no?
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March 1st, 2010 at 9:34 am
Apologies for posting on a dead thread, I don’t know if the moderator checks this.
I am wondering if the question about archived data ever got resolved. Does anyone have access to 2005 or 2006 Oakland crime data, but individual crime, including the address or police beat and date that it occured on?
Thanks,
Ben