Cops in Oakland
The Wall Street Journal has a dispiriting story about how the Oakland police force, which after a big expansion that was correlated with a drop in sky-high crime rates, is going to have to lay off “140 officers from its 800-strong police force.”
Of course, this is hardly a unique phenomenon nationwide or especially in California — municipal budgets are being hit hard all over the place — and one imagines that police forces are actually being spared the most draconian cuts because of their political clout.
But, still, Oakland is a city with all sorts of great intrinsic attributes (climate, proximity to airports, proximity to major metro areas, sports teams, great restaurants, extensive park system, close to the world’s greatest public university, fantastic commuter rail etc) that really ought to be in much better shape than it is, and it’s high crime, along with awful city institutions, that is really holding it back.
What’s also depressing is that there is a $1 billion Justice Department stimulus-funded grant program designed precisely to fill in these gaps, Cops Hiring Recovery Plan, but it’s only slated to save a measely 5,500 jobs total, so there’s naturally incredibly intense competition for the funds, and even if Oakland does get the money eventually, it will have to incur extra costs of firing and then rehiring the officers.
