Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the public safety committee meeting of Tuesday 03/10/2026 The time is now 06:16PM, and this meeting may come to order. Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker card for items on this agenda. If you're here with us in chamber and would like to submit a speaker card, please fill one out and turn one into myself or a clerk representative no later sorry. No later than ten minutes after the start of this meeting or before the item is read into record. Registering to speak via Zoom is now due twenty four hours prior to the start of this meeting time.

This meeting came to order at 06:16PM, and speaker cards will no longer be accepted ten minutes after making that time 06:26PM. We'll now proceed with taking roll. Council members Brown. Present. Lie. Present. Houston?

Present.

And chair Wong? Present. Thank you. We have four members present. Chair, before we begin, do you have any announcements at this time?

I just wanna acknowledge the mass shooting that had happened this past weekend where there were seven victims and, unfortunately, there were two individuals who died. And forgive me if I'm mispronouncing their names, but Leticia Bobo and Marquis Martin. And one of them was unfortunately an educator and a teacher and it just saddens me that we've had the loss of so many educators here in the city of Oakland whether it was coach Beam, Marvin Boomer and now Leticia. It just this I think the deaths of these individuals make should make each of us especially sad.

That's it. Reading in item one approval of the draft minutes from the committee meeting held on 02/24/2026 and we have no speakers on this item.

Move approval.

You want a second? K.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Brown, seconded by council member Houston to accept the draft minutes from the committee meeting held on 02/24/2026. On roll council members Brown. Aye. Aye. Aye. Houston. Aye. And chair Wong. Aye. Thank you. Item number one passes with four ayes. Reading in item two, determination of schedule of outstanding committee items and we have no speakers on this item.

Okay. From the administration?

Nothing at this time chair.

Thank you. Okay. Alright. Council member Brown.

Move approval of the pending list.

Second.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Brown seconded by chair Wong to accept the determination of scattered outstanding committee items as is on roll council members Brown. Aye. Aye. Houston. Aye. And chair Wong. Aye. Thank you. Item number two passes with four ayes to accept the determination of schedule of outstanding committee items as is. Reading in item three, adopt a resolution to accept an appropriate grant funds from Oakland Police Foundation in an amount not to exceed $900,000 for fiscal year 2026 to 2027 and 2027 to 2028 for the implementation of the Oakland Police Department's cadet program, and we have four speakers that signed up to speak.

Okay. I see chief is here. Let's, please proceed and give us your presentation.

Thank you, chair. Chief James Beer from the Oakland Police Department. So it's an oral presentation regarding the OPD cadet program for public safety council for 03/10/2023. So OPD was approved in February to accept an appropriated grant from the Oakland Police Foundation in the amount of 900,000 for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 to allow OPD to reinstate the cadet program. The money pays for the cadet salaries, training costs, administrative fees, uniforms, and equipment.

The GADEP program built was built to recruit and maintain talent from Oakland's youth in our community. This provides critical workforce development opportunities for Oakland youth who can apply at 15 years old and offer a pathway to well paying careers in public service by our youth with rebuilding a pipeline program for law enforcement. Currently, OPD has 615 sworn members with an operational strength of four ninety nine. The cadet program will allow for more sworn officers to focus on law enforcement duties. The cadets could be assigned to the or or going to be assigned to the training and service division and utilized throughout the department.

They can assist with administrative duties, criminal and noncriminal cases, follow-up case management, completing reports, answering phone calls, follow-up calls, traffic control, providing tours, and role playing scenarios for our training, as well as other duties as long as they're approved by the cadet coordinator. Those reports that they could actually help us out with consist of felony crimes involving property with not requiring any follow-up from a law enforcement officer, misdemeanor reports that are not involving injuries or crimes against person that also have no investigative leads, and then also if there are just reports that are being made for insurance purposes and found property reports. The cadet program helps build the bridge between the department and the community we serve, and they will act as ambassadors for our department and for the city of Oakland in their own communities as well as other campuses and high schools. The program is focusing on education, community engagement, hands on training, providing experience to learn how OPD operates, the inner workings of the city, to include the the culture of the department. It'll help them transition from being cadets to being police officer trainees.

The cadets who enter our police academy have a very high success rate, usually higher over 90% than their peers. It's also, a streamlined hiring process because the cadets have already met the medical criteria, passed background checks, and have completed and are well prepared for oral interviews and physical agility tests. It's not uncommon for cadets who don't choose to become police officers to still embark in careers with the Oakland Police Department, whether they're police evidence technicians, police services technicians, or dispatchers. By focusing on our youth and the young adults residing in Oakland, the program ensures future officers who reflect the neighborhoods that they will serve. With that, I'm open for any questions.

Go ahead council member Houston.

Due to chair, how are you sir?

Good council member.

Thank you. I like what you said that like in construction many people think that when you say construction you think it's just a hammer and a nail. Right? But as many pieces to construction, you can be a photographer, you can be a lawyer, you could be whatever in construction. Same thing you just said just now. There's other departments that a person can fall under. So I thank you for this. How can a council member support to expand this program? That's one. And who in o OPD is spearheading this? And how is it advertised so we can get the youngsters out here to to be able to wanna fall into this program, sir?

Thank you, council member. So for the support from our electeds, obviously, to keep building relationships with possible private donors, I know it's being considered for Measure NN to also support the cadet program so we can expand this and give more opportunities for the the youth that live in Oakland to be part of this program. Ultimately, it, though, is is not just giving the youth opportunities to work within the police department, but it's allowing the police department to regain and build that trust within the community itself. So I think as long as we continue to do that, as a whole in full collaboration with electeds as well as the police department and our professional staff members, that'll pay dividends down the line. With regards to currently who's spearheading this program within OPD, it's myself as well as deputy chief Tedesco, our training division.

We do have to make some modifications to the previous departmental general order because it's it's outdated and it was written when the before it's b b 15. It was written before the unit was deactivated or, you know, not defunded really, basically. And we've worked closely with the mayor's office, with Reverend Demita and staff within the mayor's office as a joint venture to get this back on, you know, up to speed to where it should be at and as well as the city administrator's office. City administrators assistant city administrator Michelle Phillips has been helpful with it as well. So it's definitely a collaborative effort with the police department, the mayor's office, a lot of elected leaders here as well that have helped out.

And how is that through the chair, how is that being advertised?

It's being advertised actually through the city of Oakland website. I'm happy to say that it has been posted as of last week, and we've already started to receive applications.

Great. Great. I wanna encourage our council members to share it on their websites and see if we can get some free advertising or something like that for community benefits. Let's see. So I love it. Thank you so much sir.

Thank you council member.

Yep. I have a few questions not seeing other blinking lights here. So I am really excited about this. I also wanna give a special shout out to Reverend Davis Howard who I know did a lot of the help in getting the private funding for this effort. So this is a true public private partnership and also a partnership across individuals in city government. Two questions, one is just how what is going to be the strategy to really ensure that youth from underserved communities are getting prioritized for this opportunity? Let's start with that.

No, it's a great question. In fact, that's our main focus for recruitment. Previously, the program was actually targeted towards youth that were 17.5, basically high school seniors about to graduate. There was and it was open all over. So our focus for this new program is to open it up to 15 year olds so they can apply and hopefully have their driver's license by the time they're 16.

And it's targeting Oakland residents, Oakland students. And for this first iteration, this first hiring, we're really focusing on high school students. So we want it to be diverse so it represents the city, but also high schools and charter schools throughout throughout the city. Now we only have nine positions to begin with, so we really wanna see the entire city represented from West Oakland to North Oakland to East Oakland.

Okay. Great. And my other question is just the sort of tasks that these young folks would be equipped to do. One thing that I am curious if high schoolers could do this type of work is we know that there's a lot of desire to see officers you know walking the beat things like that and we don't have the capacity for that because know because of our short staffing issues and I'm curious and I know these folks are young, these cadets and they would be unarmed I hope. They should not be armed at that age and I'm wondering if that is something that they might actually be able to to support.

Yeah. No. Absolutely. First, they're not gonna be armed. Yeah.

They will go through a series of testing to be trained to have handcuffs and pepper spray and self defense only. Their duties range from, like I said before, specific reports that don't require law enforcement follow-up or reports that really don't involve injuries or threats of violence. And then, obviously, misdemeanor reports that typically are resulting for the need for insurance companies. The those other duties that they'll be doing, providing pedestrian and traffic support for traffic control as well as, any type of, investigative follow-up or, you know, providing tours. Anything that has, direct contact with the public, they'll they'll be under the supervision of either a sworn officer or the cadet, coordinator.

So it's really it's really highly, supervised. And then if they get reassigned to another portion of the department, which is the goal, we want them to be exposed to all the different departments within, you know, within OPD so they understand the different roles and responsibilities of everyone within OPD. So when they go there, they'll be assigned a supervisor well, which would either be a senior officer in investigations or potentially a sergeant or up to a lieutenant. The whole program is designed to be housed in the training and in service division. We're currently in the process of establishing a list.

So officers are gonna test for the cadet coordinator position. And, ultimately, the cadet coordinator will be responsible for assignments, where they're going, their ratings, making sure they make all the training. They turn in their their their school documentation to basically support their education. Because the main goal is we want them to finish their, you know, obviously, school and then go into college and get their degree. So he's not just having a mentorship portion of it, but he is supervising them day to day and all their day to day duties with regards to the cadet program. But then when they go to another unit they'll fall under additional supervision from that unit as well.

Okay. And so just so I'm clear, is it possible for these cadets to actually like walk the beats and you know walk neighborhoods and whatnot?

Only if they're with a sworn police officer.

Okay. Gotcha. Understood.

And then even then it's it's it's really geared towards like, the they'll they'll go out on ride alongs. That that is something that the cadets will participate in. They could be used for traffic control post, but if they are, there's gonna be an officer nearby. We obviously can't expose them to any type of enforcement activity or responding for calls for service unless it's specific to the ride along. And even then, they have to follow the rules that are established for if anyone else was on a ride along.

Right. Okay. Okay. That sounds makes sense. And then I'll just comment too that I've noticed that given some of our retention issues with the department I've noticed that a lot of the individuals who have loyalty to the department came up through the cadet program because they were raised by the cadet program in many ways. So I think that's why this this initiative is so important to raising what is going to be the next generation of public safety leadership in our city. Okay. Council member Houston, is that another question?

I have one small question. Chief Beard, is a driver's license required?

Well, through the old, policy, it was. When we redo this policy here, which is just a couple of minor, adjustments to it, we're gonna it's gonna be my recommendation, as we go through the working group to get it to get it fixed that the driver's license not be mandatory till you're 16. So that way, it gives the applicants time to go through the permitting process and not rush them so they can get the proper training. But, ultimately, the goal is by the time they're 16 to have their driver's license. But they can apply at 15.

Okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

Okay. And, let's go to public comment. Calling in

the names that signed up for item number three. In no particular order, you can come up to the podium. Or if you're on Zoom, please raise your hand to be easily identified. Rajani Mandal, David Boatwright, Asada Olavala, and Jen Finley.

Where's the time, baby? I'm sorry? Okay. I'm talking. Okay.

So my real position on this is I don't think we need to be doing this until we come out of the NSA. The reason being that the NSA is saying that we are still working Americans being highly disproportionately disciplined and it also mentions in their grievance retaliation and not getting promotions and all of that other stuff. So there exists the possibility of within the police department we still haven't had culture change. So things like the blue wall of silence, where you don't do certain things you protect each other and all of that. I don't know if I want them exposed to that.

Does this require parental approval? You must pass a written test. What is that test? What are the physical requirements? What is the oral interview?

What is the background investigation mean, and what medical conditions would eliminate a person from not being a part of this. Now, in order to be an Oakland police officer, you do not have to be a citizen, but you do have to be applying for citizenship. So you child liberal selves, know you all are gonna say it doesn't matter if you're not a citizen, but what sense does it make to train a police officer, a potential police officer if they don't have citizenship and they have to be in a position of applying for it? But I know what you all are going to say. The other thing that I'm concerned about is that we have issues related to this is being done in training, but what are the insurance requirements in case there is some accident?

Liability, that's what I'm trying to say. What are the liability issues? And I hope at some point we can address some of these issues.

David Bowright, District four. This sounds like a great program. I asked the following questions support the success of the program. If the program is budgeted for two years, why would there be extensions? If persons as young as 15 can participate in the cadet program, can 17 year olds enter the OPD Academy?

How many female candidates graduate, go into the academy and become sworn officers? What is the average age of cadets applying for the academy? What is the number and percent of cadets that make it into the academy after each cadet group graduates? During the twenty five years of the cadet program, what is the number and percent of active sworn officers that were full term cadets? How many good candidates did the OPD lose when the cadet program was cut in 2023, 2024? And were there any programs after that time? Could the cadet coordinator be a sworn officer on medical leave to avoid pulling a sworn officer off of active duty? Thanks.

Rajne Mandel, district four. I'm glad to see this cadet program being reinstated. I've spoken with a few officers who came through the program and they consistently describe it as one of the department's strongest recruitment pipelines. It introduces young people to policing early and creates a pathway into long term careers in Oakland. Recruitment is critical right now.

The Lateral Academy for officers returning to the profession and the new pre academy partnership with Merritt College are important steps towards rebuilding that pipeline. At the last meeting and finance meeting this morning, there were concerns raised about overtime transparency. Transparency and oversight are important and the city's budget reports already provide detailed information showing how overtime relates to staffing shortages and operational needs. When departments are short officers, overtime becomes necessary simply to maintain patrol coverage and investigations and Oakland residents recognize that challenge. A recent East Bay Polling Institute survey shows public safety is a top priority for voters and roughly two thirds of residents say the city needs more police officers.

So strengthening recruitment pipelines like this cadet program is one practical way to respond to what residents are asking for. Thank you.

Calling in the other name that signed up to speak Jennifer Finley if you would still like to speak please raise your hand on zoom. Chair at this time all names have been called.

Okay. Great. Before we entertain a motion, is that a motion, colleague, or a question?

Question. Just real quick. I just wanted to know when when the program comes up chief, how can I participate? Can I come and see what's going on and encourage these youngsters? I mean how can I participate or how can we as council members participate?

Oh, okay.

No. I think that's a great idea. We know once we have the cadet program back online, think I it'd be great if the council members could come and celebrate the young people that are joining. One of the issues and when when I started almost thirty years ago, as far as the culture within the department that I saw right away was that there was very few Oakland officers that were born and raised in Oakland. And I think this is a program that'll help keep our culture changed to what it's about and having Oakland represented the the the the people that were born and raised in Oakland that know the culture of the city, so the culture of the city can continue to assimilate, and the OPD can be part of that culture.

And I think that's the biggest change. And one of the things that broke my heart when this program was was taken away from us was that connection to the young people. And like I said before, they're the ambassadors. They're the ones that are gonna bring bring back OPD to their schools, to their neighborhoods, to their friends, and rebuild a lot of relationships that we don't have right now that are strained within Oakland Unified School District because of different policies that prevent the police from being there. But I think honestly, like having our elected show up and celebrate them once they graduate through the process is a huge piece.

Thank you. I remember they were cut. So I'd like to move that.

Go ahead council member Brown.

Excellent. Thank you so much. I'll also second council member Houston's motion. Just wanted to say I I think that the program is great. One of the public commenters made me think of a question around how how will we know the success of this program? Is there currently a kind of reporting back mechanism or I know we're just now reinstating it so I'm just you know I would just want to make, I always want to make sure that we are you know in the loop of the successes that are occurring.

Yeah I can only let you know from my previous experience years back before the program was cut. It was a 90 success rate when a cadet made it to the police academy. Wow. And even then, when you had the 10 or less than ten percent that didn't make it through, it was very common then for for them to stay within OPD and work as a police services technician or a police evidence technician. We recently celebrated our city employees, for longevity to serve this community.

And I can tell you the one of the top I think it was, like, second or third. It was thirty five years, and his name was Sean McClure, and he started here as an Oakland cadet. And so the generations before this are highly represented within the police department. And although Sean McClure just recently, retired, we have, officers that, recently graduated from the cadet program within the last ten years to include right up to when the program was cut. So it's very successful, and it really sets them up to be ahead of all their other peers when they go into the academy because they already have a solid understanding of the policies, the procedures, you know, the understanding of how how the reporting system works and and the supervision within the the police department.

It's really it's it's really not fair even for the testing process because they're being mentored throughout. So when they go to an oral interview and a lot of the same questions that are asked for this hiring portion, it's not to test whether they're they have knowledge of a police officer. It's just to test that they have reasonable mindset and that they have reasonable thought process and skill like, skills to solve problems. It's it's not I'm not I'm not a doctor. I'm not a rocket scientist, and I was able to pass it years ago. And the oral the oral and the written exams are basically geared towards that.

Excellent. Thank you.

Council thank you. Council member Fife, did you have a question?

Motion and a second? We do. Yes. Yep. Just quick question to the chief. Aren't there twins that came through McClyman's through this cadet program?

That is correct. It's Isaac and Isaiah Harris and I have a hard time telling them apart. I truly say.

It's they I've only seen them a few times and the how they represent the program and what it's meant to them being from West Oakland, born and raised, it really had an impact on me. So I was really happy to meet them at one of the press conferences that we had a little while ago. Absolutely impossible to tell them apart, but it it definitely gave me more insight into the program. And the reality is as long this is this is my personal opinion, everybody. So you take it with a grain of salt.

As long as we have a system of racialized inequality and oppressive capitalism in this country, we're going to need a system that addresses individuals that do not want or or have a difficult time engaging in society. That's just that's just my perspective. And the incident that we saw in in my district where innocent lives were taken because as you explained to me over the weekend, an individual that had an a weapon inside of a space with God knows how many people. We need somebody that's gonna run into the fire for that. Unfortunately, the city didn't know about that incident taking place but I just wanted to say and take my my few minutes on this item because you mentioned it at the top of the meeting that we're going to do everything in our power as a city to make sure that those types of venues do not operate in our city and the individuals that are willing to address criminal activity is is essential to be able to, you know, fight crime in Oakland.

And when I say crime, I just wanna let people know that my definition of crime is a little more expansive than the average individual because I think we have blue collar criminals and people who engage in the underground economy and then we have the criminals at the top that create the conditions for these situations to thrive. I just had to take my couple seconds on the soapbox to say that. So thank you for your time, thank you for explaining the program and thank you for the twins.

Thank you councilman.

And before we move to a vote I actually just had one clarifying question for the chief since I think many of us are interested in going back to our districts and making people aware of this opportunity. I see in the report that for eligibility it's 15 years old but on the website it says high school senior attending college. Can you clarify that so we can provide accurate information for who qualifies?

You're absolutely correct. So the intent from the mayor's office and the police department is that 15 year olds can apply. This is a change from the previous departmental general order, which required 17.5. Going through the application, there are still is still at least one question in there where it states, can you certify that you're 17.5? We're telling applicants just to say no.

That will not disqualify them. We're working with the, city administrator's office right now to correct that that issue with the application. So we're going we're we're going to fix that because that is that is a problem. And then we're going to go back to fix the departmental general order, which is it's the old, it's the format for the previous program. Again, our intent here is to really reach out to the youth and give them an opportunity and, you know, as this program hopefully develops and grows, then we'll expand it as it goes from there. But we really truly wanna target high high school high school kids at this point.

Okay. So it's basically really the qualification is 15 is the minimum.

Yes. Yes. Okay.

Thanks. Okay. So we want to make a motion. Oh wait that's right we already did. My bad. We have a

motion made by council member Houston, seconded by council member Brown to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this to the March 16 special city council agenda. On roll, members Brown. Aye. Five. Aye. Houston. Aye. And chair Wong. Aye. Thank you. This item passes with four ayes to forward this item to the 03/16/2026 city special city council agenda on consent. Moving on to open forum, calling in the names that signed up to speak. Miss Asada Olubala and Jennifer Finley.

So you claim that the police department does a lot of overreach hampering our police department. March 5 meeting of the privacy commission. You never have nothing to say about them. Report on cameras for illegal dumping identification. Secret Service annual report, scope of work, outcomes, police involvement.

ATF annual report, enforcement efforts results and compliance issues. FBI violence crime task force annual report, police involvement operation forces performance motives, FBI child ex exploitation annual report, investigative issues, activities, community import, USMST task force report, enforcement activities outcomes, DEA annual report. So the police commission is doing too much overreach. What about the privacy commission? Maybe because they're mostly white. You don't have nothing to say about how they are hampering the police department being effective in.

Thank you for your Wow. Thank you for your comments. Jennifer Findlay, if you'd still like to speak, please raise your hand to be identified. Otherwise, chair all names have been called.

Okay. Alright. I would like to close this meeting just with a moment of silence for Leticia Bobo and her father Marquis Martin.

Oh, okay. Okay.

I see. Wow. Okay. Okay. Thank you, everyone. This meeting is dismissed or adjourned.

We will