Oakland CA schools dismantle police department-fires every officer
OAKLAND CA June 26 2020 After having police on campus for more than six decades, and in response to a national outcry for reform, Oakland schools will no longer have their own force after the board voted to eliminate the department.
In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the board passed the “George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate Oakland Schools Police Department.” The annual $2.5 million spent on the 10 total sworn officers and police administrators is instead expected to be redirected toward other student support services and restorative justice efforts.
Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell has from August until Dec. 31 to build a new alternative safety plan, which will include input from a committee of community members and others.
Chief Jeff Godown said in an interview Thursday that he is 100% supportive of the plan to remove the department, and in favor of the new alternative safety plan.
“It’s time to try something new,” he said. “Something is broken in the system when police have to respond and come to an educational institutional.”
He said the department gets about 1,000 calls per semester. Of those, 300 are serious crimes that require immediate responses such as robberies, or even sexual assaults that may not have occurred on school campuses. The chief said the Oakland Police Department would respond to those calls in the future.
The remaining 700 calls are, for example, calls where a student may not want to attend school or has a confrontation with another student. The chief said this is where the alternative safety plan comes in — those calls should be handled internally through behavioral health, counselors or restorative justice programs.
It’s expected the seven sworn officers, two sergeants and the chief himself will remain working in the district until the Dec. 31 deadline for an alternative plan, he said. “Then they’ll be looking for other work, just like me,” Godown said, who has been in his role for six years at the district.
Janell Hampton, who represents the sworn officers in the California School Employees Association, said Thursday it’s telling that there is no plan right now.
“OSPD plans to work hand-in-hand with the district for the security and safety of the students,” she said.
Hampton reminded the board in comments Wednesday that the officers are under a contract with the district until June 2022. She said the law requires that the district meet with them for negotiations to work out details of potentially ending that contract. Hampton said Thursday the district first needs to decide who will fulfill the duties that the officers are currently handling.
“No community organization can regulate who calls or doesn’t call police,” she said.
The district has said that just like anyone else, it would call Oakland police Department if there were any major emergency on campus. But Hampton said the response times would be much slower than now. Officers also currently perform specific duties such as taking students into protective custody who may report abuse at home, or answer calls of people bringing weapons on campus, she said.
“Who do you want to perform those duties?” she asked.
The city of Oakland estimates it would take 14 officers and two sergeants to assume the responsibilities of the public safety of Oakland Unified, and cost an estimated $3.4 million annually. The city’s director of finance, Adam Benson, said in a report to the City Council, that existing staff would not be able to absorb the additional calls.
But the leaders of Black Organizing Project, which helped craft and bring the resolution to the board, made it clear they did not want Oakland police to simply replace the officers on campus. School security officers, of which there are around 45, are expected to be kept on campus as part of the new safety plan, but will likely be retrained and reconfigured into a new role, board President Jody London said.
“We must remember that the creation of a thoughtful and inclusive process for developing an alternative safety plan is far deeper and more complex than just the removal of school district police,” said Superintendent Johnson-Trammell in a statement Thursday.
Of the nearly 30 speakers who addressed the board Wednesday, all were in favor of the elimination of the police force. Some spoke about how black and brown students can feel dehumanized, disrespected and generally not safe with having police on campus. Others urged the board to set an example for the nation in their act of removing police.
Jessica Black, organizing director for the Black Organizing Project, spoke to the board about the importance of the resolution and her organization’s fight for the past 10 years to remove the police from schools.
“This isn’t just a small drop in the bucket. It’s a historical moment,” she said.
“We’re still fighting to understand what true freedom in this country looks like. Abolishing that system is critically important,” she continued.
Black Organizing Project advocated for the removal of the police all week with demonstrations in front of the school district office, car caravans and other rallies. On Wednesday, they held a special in-person board watch party. The crowd erupted in cheers and applause when student board member Denilson Garibo, who was present at the watch party, showed the crowd to the rest of the board during the online meeting.
“I just want to say the community is hella happy right now. This is history in the making, y’all,” Garibo said.
The board agreed to pass the resolution with an added amendment that teachers and staff, including board members, will be trained in anti-racism and unconscious or implicit bias.
Oakland Unified spent $9.3 million on its police department from 2013 to 2018. Black students make up 26% of the student population in the district, yet account for 73% of the arrests, according to the the board’s resolution.
The district’s police department began as a security force in 1957 and later received police status. In the late 1990s, the district expanded the force to make it more autonomous from city police. In 2001, it was shut down by the district for being too expensive and ineffective. But after a legal battle, it returned in 2007.
San Francisco Unified School District agreed this week to no longer partner with San Francisco Police and have officers on its campuses. The board of Peralta Community College District, which oversees Laney, Merritt and Berkeley City colleges, voted this week to transition out of using the Alameda County sheriff’s deputies on campuses. Alum Rock Union School District in San Jose planned on discussing the merits of using school resource officers program in its school on Thursday.
