Thank you.

Welcome to the Public Safety Committee meeting

of Tuesday, January 27th, 2026.

The time is now 1.30 p.m.

and this meeting may come to order.

Before taking roll, I will provide instructions

on how to submit speaker cards 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 than 10 minutes

after the start of this meeting

or before the item is read into record.

Registering to speak via Zoom is now due 24 hours prior

to the start of this meeting.

This meeting came to order at 1.30 p.m.

and speaker cards will no longer be accepted

10 minutes after this meeting has begun,

making that time 1.40 p.m.

We'll now proceed with taking roll.

Council members Brown.

Present.

Council member Fyfe is excused.

Council member Houston.

Present.

And Chair Wong.

Present.

Thank you.

We have three members present, one excused Fyfe.

Chair before we begin do you have any announcements at this time?

No I don't. Let's go ahead. Oh yes thank you. I will be just switching the order of the agenda that way the item number four is going to be addressed as the third item.

Thank you. Noting the changes made to the agenda we will hear item number four after item two.

starting off with item one there are no minutes to be approved that's this is a

special meeting item two determination of scheduled outstanding committee items

and we do have one speaker that signed up

let's hear from councilmember Brown first yes thank you so much chair I

I wanted to put on your radar also to the administration.

During our council budget process in 2025,

I know that the body had set aside some dollars

to help support with human trafficking.

I think it was $350,000 in the first year

and likewise in the second.

And I think what I'm hoping,

since we're going to be engaging on an item related to human trafficking today,

I am interested in an informational report from OPD on how those funds were utilized, I guess, in the first year.

Okay, yep, and I've been thinking similarly, so we'll get that scheduled.

Public speakers, we'll move to that.

Folks, we'll have two minutes.

Ms. Sada Olovala, we have you signed up for item two.

I'm recommending that you have a report on Oakland police officers' mutual aid with cities that are not sanctuary cities.

So the following cities are not documented sanctuary cities.

Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Danville, San Ramon, Alamo, Brentwood, Orenda, and Moraga.

So that means if you send your officers into those cities for mutual aid, their jurisdiction practices have to be followed, not Oakland.

So y'all need to have a discussion about that and how you want to proceed.

A report on the ambassador program.

The city, I'm sorry, the police department has just received $900,000 to return to the cadet program.

And you need to know how that's going to work.

based on OUSD has the George Floyd resolution,

which means there's no working with the Oakland Police Department.

And those candidates for the cadet program would come from a large percentage of them.

And to emphasize the purpose of the program, because they didn't give me an answer to this

in a police commission meeting, is to encourage Oaklanders to become police officers.

Since we only have 90% of our officers, we have living outside of Oakland.

We need a report on the FBI investigation that resulted in nine members of an organized

gang, illegal gang, involved in 24 murders.

We need to report on some things that are going on with the cartel, MS-13, and these

other illegal uh organized crimes and gang members here and

thank you for your comments chair that concludes all speakers on item two

council member houston um council member chair wing i wanted to do i heard my council member

Brown say I wanted to do an informational report too can I ask for

that now? Trinity Hall can I have my assistant come on Trinity you know

exactly what to say can you come up and ask for that informational report please

that I need that we spoke about in our huddle this morning. Good afternoon to

the chair we are requesting an informational report regarding

individuals who engage in sex purchasing crimes and related other activity we

requesting demographics regarding age race sexual orientation gender and any

other relevant information that might paint a picture as to what exactly is a

state of sexual violence in the state in the city of Oakland okay yeah I think

that's great and we've been in conversations with OPD about that

information so we'll schedule this into one package and I wanted a specific year

I wanted it between what did I say true I believe 23 24 20 23 to 2024 yes okay

we will work on Trinity thank you all right thank you both colleagues anything from the

administration on that nope okay all right excellent I'll make a motion to go ahead and

move this item along thank you we have a motion made by councilmember Brown

seconded by councilmember Houston to accept the determination of scheduled

outstanding committee items as is on roll councilmembers Brown aye Fife is

excused Houston aye and chair Wong aye thank you item number two passes with

three eyes one excused Fife to accept the pending list as is now reading in

In item number four,

adopt an ordinance amending Oakland Municipal Code 9.08.260

to conform to state law by one,

by repealing the offense of loitering

for the purpose of engaging in prostitution,

two, adding loitering for the purpose

of purchasing commercial sex as an offense,

three, allowing for the administrative assessment

fines against sex purchasers, sex traffickers, and properties for used

prostitution and for creating a human trafficking survivor support fund and

we have about 19 speakers that signed up. Okay wonderful. Well I'm going to ask

staff to, and that staff member is me, so I will go on and present the item.

Okay.

All right.

So we first actually want to play a video just to capture the problem that we're seeing

and the nature of it.

Meadow, are you able to tee that up?

Okay.

Thank you.

The history of slavery in our world isn't over.

Prostitution, the world's oldest profession, is actually a horrific trade of human flesh.

Over 80% of victims are women, and most of them are children.

Most people only think that this is happening in Asia, in countries like India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia,

but in reality, hundreds of thousands of these children are at risk every single day for being trafficked into sex slavery here in the U.S. as well.

As girls living in the Bay Area, where 40% of all of America's sex trafficking takes place,

we wanted to find out where the fastest growing criminal industry in the world all starts, here in our backyard.

On the average, some of these exploiters have as many as 10 girls that they are exploiting.

And it doesn't take very much for an exploiter to lure a child into his business by just saying

a few nice things to them.

There's this whole underground world that OPD basically discovered in 1999 of young

girls being sold for sex in our own backyards.

Really when you look at how it's happening and the deprivation of liberty that takes

place in order to accomplish the crime, it is modern day slavery.

These children are beaten.

They take their clothes away, they take on their property, their phone, their identification.

They'll move them to places where the child doesn't know where she is.

These kids are sexually assaulted by the exploiters.

They are raped and sodomized, children being chained to the heater vents.

At the end of the workday, the kids' clothes are taken away from them,

and they're left naked in rooms so they can't escape.

She needed money, and she doesn't know any other way to get it.

She thinks about it, especially when times get tough at home,

because home is not a place where she likes being.

A woman's body is kind of what you barter on and is what we trade on.

And that is kind of cultured into part of our mentality.

What ends up happening is once you strip all the makeup and you strip off the nails and you give back the layers, they're just a kid.

People always ask us, how does a 12-year-old or a 13-year-old girl go from sitting in an 8th grade classroom to selling her body to 20 men per night?

most oftentimes the exploitation on the street is not the first act of rape that they've ever had.

And so when you come from such neglect and you come from such risk

and your uncle or a trusted family member has been molesting you since you're five years old

and you really believe that your body is a sexual object and not what it's there for,

when a 30-year-old man, a pimp, comes along and tells you that he loves you

and you're the most beautiful thing that he's ever seen,

it's really easy for a grown man to talk a 12- or 13-year-old girl

who's been through the things that she's been through into doing that.

Pimps, exploiters of human beings, take advantage of these girls and their histories of abuse

to use them as economic pawns.

Over 70% of all girls being trafficked for sex have escaped abusive home lives as runaways,

and almost all of them have been sexually abused and raped before adolescence.

They take girls who have never known love and trick them into selling their bodies.

are also abducted off the streets by pimps.

They don't have any empathy for another human being.

That exploiter will get tired of the child, so he'll sell her to another pimp or exploiter.

Her psychology, ability to even evaluate what's safe and what's not, is completely diminished.

She does not understand her victimization, and the only thing that we can really compare

it to is Stockholm Syndrome or Battered Wives Syndrome.

The fear and the guilt and the shame and the physical and emotional pain that comes along

with having to be exploited every day, you know, by grown adult males and for really

for no gain, for no gain for them whatsoever.

She stands there every day and takes all the risk, the risk of being killed, the risk of

being infected with AIDS, the risk of going to jail.

She takes all the risks and has absolutely no power over her life or her decision.

We have to try to engage them and encourage them to get involved so we can find out who

the pimps are, who are pandering them, who's forcing them into child exploitation, and

try to find a reason why they're not in their homes and what their parents are doing.

You know, when I first started over 20 years ago, you would see in the 20s and 30s what

I see now as young as 13 years old, seven days a week.

Human slavery isn't over today. Women and girls everywhere are suffering. They end

up under the control of a pimp who promises to take care of them. Soon,

however, the master-enslave relationship is established and maintained through

even more abuse and violence. And at that point, they're completely at the mercy of

these men. The exploiters doing this need to be stopped. Help us bring an end to

the abuse, to the pain, and to change society so that it is no longer all right to buy sex

from a child.

It all starts now.

Thank you, Meadow.

And, you know, the thing is that when this documentary was produced, that was before

actually.

it's now exploded this problem in in district to the the community that I represent and so

um I remember driving down uh international boulevard around midnight on a Saturday night

it's probably 100 to 150 women on a three minute stretch women and girls and yeah clearly minors

too on on that stretch um I do want to tee up just one more video we had a press conference

for human trafficking prevention month and if we could just tee that up just a short explanation

for this clip and i think brianna's actually in this room but part of what she's talking about

is not only ab 379 which i want to make clear is not what i am introducing that is a state

law but she's speaking to the importance of really tackling demand which is we don't have the supply

unless the demand didn't exist.

We can tee that up.

My name is Brianna Price.

I'm a survivor of human trafficking and an advocate.

I, along with many other survivors, work to help pass AB 379,

and I'm in strong support of it.

I want to be very clear.

I'm here speaking from my lived experience.

The first time I was trafficked was at the 8th of 13th.

And then from the age of 16 to 17, I was trafficked both online throughout the Bay Area and on international.

I was a child. I was not making choices. I was not empowered. I was not consenting.

I was exploited by adults who knew exactly what they were doing.

And buyers who chose to purchase me as if I was a commodity.

Without buyers, there would be no traffickers.

and without demand there would be no supply.

That truth is uncomfortable for many people,

but discomfort is nothing compared to what me and many other survivors had to suffer.

Some opponents of the bill argue that the penalties could be too harsh for buyers.

But I want that statement to sit with you.

Harsh compared to what?

because what was taken from me and many other survivors, that was harsh.

My innocence was stolen. My teenage years were stolen.

While other girls and boys were attending school dances,

thinking of prom, worrying about grades or crushes,

I was surviving a trauma that no child should ever have to endure.

Those years do not come back.

At the age of 31 today, I am still healing from some of the things I experienced as a teenager.

Trafficking doesn't end when exploitation ends.

It lives in your nervous system.

It affects your relationships, your sense of safety, your body, your mind.

Healing is an ongoing lifetime work.

And my story does not stand alone.

Thank you.

And Meadow, if we could tee up the presentation.

And thank you, Brianna, for having the courage to share your story and for being here today,

too. So the question is, of course, what do we do about it? Here is the proposal that I'm proud

to put before this committee. The other thing, by the way, that I just want to acknowledge is

is that I think members of the public, as well as my colleagues,

have this packet before you.

There's language in here, for example,

that I would honestly prefer not to use,

because I think the preferred term that I would want to use

is exploited persons.

But it has been in a back and forth with our city attorneys

that we need to use the language that has been used,

so it matches up with the state penal code.

Otherwise, we run the risk of none of this being enforceable

that and so it has to match. Okay. So what I am proposing today is a set of

amendments to our municipal code 9.08.260 and the creation of OMC 9.08265.

This in essence accomplishes a few things. It's going to be really

establishing a set of administrative fines and I'll go more about why that is

an important component of this model as well as shifting the burden of this

responsibility is really on the demand side particularly the buyers which we've

heard on repeat is really key to actually addressing the human trafficking

problem as well as using that to create a restitution model for survivors that is

going to be funds for many of the organizations here local to Oakland that

do not have enough resources to provide exit services as well as the the the

support that is needed because as Brianna had spoken the PTSD the trauma

that results from being trafficked is immense some context here so Oakland is

ranked among the top three cities in California the top 25 cities in the

United States for human trafficking we are this is not a list that we want to

be at the top of but we are here so we are a national hotspot this has been

recognized by the FBI the Department of Justice and a number of organizations

some background too on what this means for our young people because I've also

heard anecdotally by the way that we have traffickers that circle around our

high schools as well as even our middle schools looking for vulnerable youth

because they're looking for the the child that does not have the support

system that, you know, is the victim of choice for this. Nationally, just a reminder, the average

age of entry into the sex trade industry is 12 to 14. It is a minor. There is incorrect perceptions

in terms of, you know, these are, you know, prostitutes on the street. These are, these are

exploited women and girls, also boys and men.

That happens as well.

But I think that average age of entry

tells you everything about what is happening in this industry.

In Alameda County, furthermore, 15% of those screened vulnerable youth

show clear signs of commercial sex exploitation.

We're actually at double the California average.

The other thing is so many of the victims

are coming from foster care.

You can see that 55% based off some recent data

were foster youth.

And if they're not foster youth, they're likely,

as said in the video, runaways from abusive homes.

And again, so much of it is tied to the fact

that these are most vulnerable young folks,

whether they're a minor or just because you're 18

doesn't mean that suddenly you're still vulnerable,

especially if this has been your history.

The other thing is that this is obviously a racial justice issue.

While black residents are around 20% of Oakland's population,

black women and girls represent 61% of recovered victims.

The other thing to note is that of the youth identified,

nearly for sorry excuse me for every youth identified nearly 10 more remain

in the shadows we have screening tools there's been over 900 youth identified in

the country but this far exceeds the law enforcement arrest numbers and the thing

that I really want to emphasize and I've heard it from students too is that it is

their classmate it is their classmate who is also likely a classmate who is

vulnerable may not be showing up the class every day who is who is that

person and we do have case cases happening within our school system I

also want to describe here in terms of the blade now this is a problem that

happens across the city of Oakland but what we have in district 2 is what is

called the blade it is International Boulevard I want to point out some

things about the makeup of this community. First of all you can see in the bottom left that is a

map that shows that there's concentrated poverty in this corridor. It's also a corridor that is

mostly people of color. It's Southeast Asian. This is where Little Saigon is if you can see in the

upper left corner where that purple is. In the middle you can see that throughout there we have

representation from black residents and then we also have Latino communities who on the eastern

portion of the corridor. So it's basically an immigrant, people of color, low income. You can

see that most people also rent in this corridor and this is where the activity has been proliferating.

It doesn't happen in the wealthy part of my district. So why this legislation in particular

in front of you. First of all, as I said, demand. We have to target demand. I think it sounds easy,

for example, why not just crack down on the traffickers? It's actually much more complicated

given the dynamics between the exploited and the trafficker and to provide evidence. And this is

why targeting demand is so important because also if we don't target the source that fuels this

industry, what's been found in other places that have been trying to tackle this issue

is that you just keep on, it's more survivors circling through the same cycle instead of

really addressing the source of the problem.

The other thing is, part of what's novel about this is that we are using administrative enforcement,

this is the proposal before you with fines, this is going to be faster, more certain accountability

that will also fund much needed survivor services.

already use administrative enforcement to do fines for illegal dumping for blight

for all kinds of reasons that this is a key municipal tool this would be novel

in the sense that we are using a city fine model to ensure this kind of victim

restitution and so because so often I think the criminal justice system is

very black and white. We have not had any purchasers or it's very rarely even

though in the books on state penal code purchasing is against the law. Very few

get charged and that's part of the problem right and so we need to create a

third path another tool that can be used by the city of Oakland and not only that

is it's going to fund survivor services here in Oakland whereas at the state

level we have no guarantee that those funds are going to come back to the

service providers that can help us take our women and girls off the streets on

the blade. I also want to note too that this is of course just about conforming

to some of the state law changes not only AB 379 actually but also SB 357 so

colleagues for those of you looking in the packet actually sections A through

D I would just say those are really not up for debate these are just kind

conforming to the state law. In fact, were we to try to change the language or add things,

we risk having our own local ordinance being preempted and struck down. So even though that

is a, you'll see a lot of strike throughs, additions, this is all about conformance. It's

almost housekeeping just to make sure that our municipal codes reflect our state penal codes.

And then of course just dismantling this business.

this. Sorry, wrong direction. A couple things that I want to note too, just about the demand

and the sex buyer, because I think all too often it gets characterizes, you know, men

will be men. It's not like that. We have to stop the demand. First of all, according to

national data, the buyers are predominantly middle

to upper class men. From our own

local data here in Oakland, 70% of the buyers are residents that are from

outside of Oakland, often commuting in from our

suburbs to come here to Oakland.

And of course, the socioeconomic advantage,

if you're paying for sex, you do have some money.

Okay. And the other thing I will just note that is not on the slide is it's often coming also from people who may have addictions, like a sex addiction, or it may also, you know, and it's often, I don't want to, I want to make sure that my colleagues understand that the behavior is often violent.

What you heard in the video is that buyers are often, you know, they're not, yeah, it's violent.

Okay, so a couple of things. As I mentioned, sections A through D in this are just actually

updating our municipal codes to match state penal code and to also distinguish because

we've had some changes in the way that we are thinking at the state level too around

victims and buyers and making that distinction occur. Also, some changes that have happened

at the state level includes removing loitering with the intent to sell.

So our municipal code now conforms to that, as well as including now the changes at AB

379, where it is now a crime to loiter with the intent to purchase sex.

And the state laws also have some language around what are the behaviors that are indicative

of purchasing.

But for the most part, again, I just want to emphasize this is a cleanup exercise, even though it takes up perhaps some of the most space in your package.

Now, this is really the substance of what are we changing here in the city of Oakland.

A couple things.

First of all, it's a set of administrative fines.

So you can see this starting on Section F, Administrative Enforcement.

Here's a few things.

So first, it's fines of up to $4,000 for the buyers for the first offense.

And for every subsequent offense, that fine goes up to $8,000.

Anything involving a minor would be tripled.

For traffickers, the first offense is $10,000,

and every subsequent offense is now $20,000.

And again, anything involving a minor is tripled.

The other thing I want to clarify is a single offense counts as a single victim as well as a single day.

So if you have trafficked someone in an ongoing period and there's enough civil evidence that this has been happening,

each incident or each day would count as a separate violation and would therefore increase the fines.

The other thing that this contains, and this is in Section E, is we're also adding an amendment.

These are around these problem businesses.

So these are motels, massage parlors, and we now have heard actually of the smoke shops that are international.

Some of them have back rooms that facilitate this activity.

And so we would be now including a penalty to fine the owner of the property up to $2,500 per day as a public nuisance.

That owner would also get notified.

So they should not be surprised and they have an opportunity to abate.

And then the other thing that I want to mention is that we included a provision around affirmative defense.

as we know that sometimes victims can, under the force of coercion,

may carry out some of these activities themselves.

And so someone who was doing that under the force of coercion

would be given an opportunity at court to provide defense

that they were a victim of sex trafficking.

Now this is the restorative justice core of really this ordinance.

So 100% of the fines, and this was really important to me because I will say this is

a differentiator between how our other fines are structured, most of which get deposited

into the general fund.

I wanted to make sure that these funds are really reserved for a special restricted fund

that goes back to fund our local survivor and victim services.

These uses would be anything from emergency and transitional housing,

medical and mental health services, workforce development and job training,

legal support and street outreach.

I think the street outreach is likely going to be key here

as if we pass this the ripple effect on the market,

as well as undercover operations to apprehend buyers and traffickers.

And that's included in part because even though this past budget cycle, we did get that dedicated funding.

I don't think necessarily 10 years from now we have that guarantee.

And just looking at the long game of this ordinance.

Yeah.

A couple of things on the fiscal impact and enforcement.

You can hear see that it is the administrative costs would be absorbed by existing departments.

We've been discussing already with finance, with the city attorney, with OPD, all on the

administration side of things.

The projected revenue, this is an estimate and it may actually increase.

It's hard to tell really what would happen once we pass this, but it could be around

$250,000 to $450,000 annually.

And then as I stated before, the enforcement mechanisms have all been working.

out. So in conclusion, the intent of this is to make this an impossible market for

sex fires as well as a fortress of support for survivors. The desire to

impact is reducing the street-level violence. This corridor has also become

one of the most afflicted by gun violence in the city of Oakland because

again it's a violent industry. Safer schools, there is also Franklin Elementary,

there's a number of schools that are also in this area and those children

should not have to those those families do deserve better and a self-sustaining

fund for victim restoration and so the call to action colleagues is that we go

ahead and adopt this this proposal and establish not only the fines but also

the survivor support fund thank you I'll take questions

Council member. Thank you. I think my preference would be to hear from the public first. Okay.

Public comment. Let's hear from the public. Calling in the names that signed up to speak

on item number four in no particular order. You can come up to the podium. State your

name for the record and before making your comments and as standard practice if you're

on zoom please raise your hand if you're if you hear your name and we will hear

you after the in-person speakers Brianna Katrina Price sorry if I mess up your

names as well Emeril Rugo Janice Jacobs Asada Olobala Maribel Tadeo

Sarai Mazeregos, Tude and Daughter,

Lian Trung, Edwin Hagler, Yufin Tilati, Jennifer Tai,

Jennifer Tran, Qian Nguyen, Grace Houston,

Blair Beekman, Nolan Wong, Nahisha Smith,

Annabelle Velasquez, Liz Sullivan, and Vanessa Russell.

In no particular order, you can come up to the podium.

Please state your name before you begin.

Since we have Oakland Police Department leaving shortly, my colleague has a question for Oakland

Police Department.

Can we first have that address and then we'll move to public comment?

Yeah, thank you.

I know you already called members of the public and so my preference would be for them to speak

And if possible, if OPD needs to leave,

maybe you can answer our questions virtually.

I just know that my questions are pretty detailed.

OK, he can stay.

OK, great.

Thank you, 18.

OK.

Hello, my name is Grace Houston.

I'm 16, and I go to St. Mary's College High School

in Berkeley.

And I just want to start off by saying when I was 12,

I was working with Nancy O'Malley

based on sex trafficking and transportation.

And if it wasn't for my guardian,

I could have been sex trafficked too.

So my question is to you,

how are you guys going to address this topic

with sex trafficking and transportation?

Because I will be working with the city,

state and county based on it.

Thank you.

My name is Brianna Price. I know you heard some of what I had to say in the

video, but I am a survivor of trafficking and also an advocate. I was trafficked

from Sacramento to Oakland and I just want to share the first time that I was

ever trafficked in the Bay Area. I was sold online and my trafficker told me

for the first time that he was going to be selling me.

I refused and was beaten in the car.

I then was told to get out and go upstairs

of the apartment of my buyer.

When I got up there, I had blood-stained hair,

blood on my face.

My face was starting to swell,

and he acted as if nothing had ever happened

and proceeded to rape me, to buy me,

and put the money on the counter

as if nothing had ever happened.

My story is not a one-off story.

There's so many other victims and survivors that are enduring right now the same things that I went through.

Buyers constantly tried to take my life.

They beat me.

I had to jump out of cars.

My sister was 23, and she lost her life as a result of being trafficked.

So this fund would help to restore those, or it would be a drop in the bucket to help

and restore those who've been victimized so that they can live prosperous lives.

I'm 31 now, and I'm still healing from some of the effects of what I went through.

Thank you.

Hello.

My name is Edwin Hagler, Community Brothers.

I've been supporting the Saigon area for the last three weeks in a row.

We also took a walk with Charlene.

And what I saw was terrible was a pimp approached a city administrator and told him what it

would be for a charge for a sex trafficking worker.

And to me that was kind of odd.

So my thing to this is to step up the protocol when it comes to this type of behavior.

And it shouldn't be tolerated in Oakland because, you know, we are Bay Area.

We are a beautiful city.

And having this go on day after day after day is just too much.

And that's my opinion of being out there and knowing this type of thing is going on, like an everyday process.

and it's like it shouldn't be a part of the nature of having young children see the sex workers out

there with half nude who would barely close on the little kids you know it's schools around that

area it's not it shouldn't be tolerated so that's my opinion hello my name is lynn chong i am the

I live there, I work here for 35 years.

I never see the kids and the trafficking go around every day.

It makes noises.

My mom lives there every night.

I get out and saw a lot of people around the car and it's noisy to get a picnic with so many girls.

I'm very upset.

I want to support the child to help us from Little Saigon to do safety.

We can work and live there.

And safety.

Thank you very much.

My name is Emerald Merubio.

I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.

And I've been serving survivors since 2016.

I'm an advocate, I'm a holder of healing circles for survivors for the past five years.

I also have lived experience of decades of physical, emotional, and sexual trauma.

You did a very beautiful slide deck.

I just felt like you shared my life story right there.

Most of all the traumas were at the hands of people who were supposed to keep me safe.

This distorted what I saw as actual love, safety, trust, and protection really meant.

Being groomed, molested, and sexually assaulted in my childhood home, starting at the age

taught me that love and safety was transactional.

As a runaway teenager, I became a survivor of sex trafficking

for simply a car ride.

I didn't get money.

It was just for a place to stay for the night.

And then I have to find out who else I can hit up

for a place to stay for the night.

Nobody should have to decide that or determine that

or figure that out as a 16-year-old.

Statistics tell me that I should be addicted, in jail,

or dead.

Came close to all three.

I can't put a timeline on how long it takes for a survivor

to heal from such traumas.

In my circles, they have to learn safety.

Survivors, we have to learn safety, boundaries,

healthy friendships, relationships, environments.

We have to manage our fear, anxiety, and bitterness

all the while trying to figure out

how to detect danger at all costs,

learning how to trust people again,

cultivate support tribes, and completing,

while the while completing school, pursuing careers,

building safe relationships, parenting kids.

It's a lot.

We're trying to create a life and a legacy for ourselves,

not only for our children,

but for future generations to come.

In serving survivors of commercial exploitation

and being a survivor myself,

I learned that the healing process

can be across the lifespan.

According to California Victim Compensation Board,

they have said that it's over $200,000 per survivor

to recover from such things

because it requires such specialized,

sustained, and trauma-informed care.

Thank you for your comments.

Hi, I'm Janice Jacobs.

Let's get real.

Oakland has long been a destination for sex tourism and the impact is being seen in our

schools.

to case management at Oakland Unified School District, there were more than 300 case meetings

last year about kids that had been trafficked.

That video, International Boulevard, was produced 15 years ago, and the problem is worse now

than it was then.

And it's not due to committed and talented professionals that have been dedicated to

this issue for many years. I've been an activist for the past 15 years in Oakland, and I've

worked on prevention education legislation, starting task forces, billboard campaigns,

documentary films. And over that time, I've seen multiple city leaders get up on the dais

and say, we're going to stop trafficking.

We're going to end this.

And the truth is, is that, you know, we can't end this.

You know, there's only, this is a business.

And traffickers and sex buyers make trafficking profitable.

And with any business, like any marketing plan,

there's supply and there's demand.

And the only way to obliterate supply

is to obliterate poverty in Oakland.

and we know from the Oakland budget

that we don't have the resources

we don't have the housing

15% of our homeless people

are youth

and only 5% of the housing is for youth

so if we cannot

obliterate poverty

in Oakland then we have to

focus on demand

and

that's just

you know that's just

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is up.

Hi, my name is Yu Funtalati.

I'm one of the volunteers from Shiji Foundation.

and every Sunday we offer math tutoring to the student from Franklin Elementary School

and we also have high school and college students come over to tutor those students

and it's very scary for those college and high school kids to come over and to provide

the tutoring to the students.

and over the weekend I took my family to have four, five in the neighborhood and

it's just every corner I see those girls and it's very sad and for my kids to see

it it's just and for the business to you know run in the business over in that

area is I think I'm sure we definitely had to find a solution for the safety

and the business economy in the area. Thank you.

Hi, Council Member. My name is Jennifer Tai, and I'm the director of the TD Foundation in Oakland,

and we are a nonprofit organization. For over 20 years, we have proudly served the Little Saigon community.

We're providing free medical services, back-to-school backpacks, vision care,

and an ongoing support to the local elementary school

and thousands of residents and students each year.

We deeply love this neighborhood.

However, I have to be honest with you.

With the ongoing issue of human trafficking,

crime and unsafe condition,

are putting my ability to remain here at risk.

I am increasingly challenging to reassure my volunteer,

my donor, especially my leadership,

that there's still hope in this community

when sex buyers continue to operate openly,

while resident, children, and seniors,

and business have to suffer the consequences.

This order is critical because it's

hold buyers accountable, not victims.

We are seriously, if we are seriously

about ending trafficking, we must address

the demand that drives it.

Failing to do so, sending a traveling message

that safety and dignity of our community is not a priority.

We are here today respectfully as you stand with us.

Peace shows our community that Oakland is committed

to protecting its residents, its children,

and the organization that serves them.

We urge you to pass this ordinance

and take meaningful action today.

Thank you very much for your time and for listening.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Dr. Jennifer Tran. I'm the president of the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce. I'm an Oakland native and I'm just really grateful for you taking time to listen to all of us.

The 94606 zip code is not only a diverse neighborhood, it's one of the highest concentration of

monolingual bilingual residents in the city of Oakland.

It's also home to 19X, beat 19X, which has the highest crime rates outside of homicides.

And it doesn't matter what language you really speak.

When you walk onto East 12 or international 24-7, the experience is a harrowing one.

For not just the refugees who moved here 50 years after the Vietnam War,

but the folks who are being trafficked, the young women, rain or shine.

We say that Oakland is open for business, but this isn't the type of business that we can support.

We say that we stand with victims and survivors of human trafficking,

and yet we are approaching the end of January

and we still don't have this ordinance passed.

We are a week away from the Super Bowl.

City of Oakland continues to celebrate

the wonderful things that are happening

with the collaboration of our council members,

Council Member Wong, Council Member Brown,

and the others for an AI economic zone,

an activation zone, a little Saigon zone.

But we can't do that as long as we are siloed right now.

And two weeks ago, all of our communities came together as residents, as small businesses,

as community organizers, as survivors and victims of self-traveling, to come together

and say this is not about one community, but a host of communities that are sinking because

of exploitation of vulnerable communities.

So we stand here on behalf of all of our communities to ask you to pass this ordinance

so we not wait another day, another week, to support those who are affected by this issue.

Hello, my name is Sui. I am from Shade Movement in support of prohibition of code 908260.

Sexually exploited victims need support, not punishment.

Those who should be punished are buyers and traffickers.

They are the root cause of this problematic issue.

During outreach with Shade Movement, we give safe care bags, and I have went to school with many of the girls that I see on the Oakland blade.

They have always been known for their intelligence and their high capabilities.

But sometimes when you're vulnerable, it can be very easily to be manipulated.

They simply need help, not judgment.

Hi, Sareri.

Sarah Rye with Shade Movement.

We're a survivor-led organization.

I support the city ordinance to address the demand of human bodies being sold for sex.

This ordinance helps disrupt the buying of women and children on the streets of Oakland, the Blade.

We're here to protect and hold those accountable that do harm and at the same time educate to change.

This is a fresh start for the city of Oakland to truly address sex trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation,

and provide effective services to victims and survivors.

It's important that we build a sustainable survivor center ecosystem of prevention,

intervention, and healing.

We must reduce conditions that allow trafficking and exploitation to thrive in our city.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Maribel Tadell, and I'm a survivor shaped by the mental and physical realities

of gender-based violence in the flats of Oakland.

We've long imposed, I'm sorry, it's my first time here.

You got it.

I'm going to start over.

Sorry.

We restart the clock.

My name is Maribel Tadeo, and I'm a survivor shaped by the mental and physical realities of gender-based violence that the flats of Oakland have long imposed on its native residents.

Today, I also stand before you as an advocate fighting for survivors of labor and human trafficking with shade movement.

I have been given the opportunity to fight on the front lines alongside survivors,

supporting them as they navigate the systems that often fail to protect them.

I'm here to voice my support for the recent change to the penal code that holds individuals who solicit sex accountable for their actions.

Oakland's decision to implement this law immediately is both necessary and appropriate.

Accountability is essential. People must take responsibility for the harmful choices they make,

especially when those choices contribute to exploitation, violence, and trafficking in our communities.

This policy change is an important step towards addressing harm at its source

and reinforcing Oakland's commitment to survivor safety and dignity.

I stand in full support of this law and its enforcement.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Nolan Wong.

I'm an ex-business owner in the Little Saigon community as of last year.

I had been a business owner at my location on 9th and International for 26 years.

I'm here now as a community member because this area deserves better and still needs my support.

Among the many issues that this area deals with, sexual trafficking, as was stated, has exploded in the past few years.

And it's been allowed to become the red light district in Little Saigon.

And it brings a lot of bad elements to the area that make it extremely difficult for businesses and families.

when it was stated that it's a violent industry, it really is.

In the past two years, I've had two attempted murders right at my intersection,

cases where pimps were shooting at each other.

It creates a dangerous environment, and I feel bad for the businesses that are still there,

the residents that are still there, that have to deal with this outside of their doorsteps.

loyal customer just last week called me up and asked me okay because there's a commercial

commercial space open for uh rent and she asked me okay about you know the price and everything

and one of her main concerns was actually you know she as she put it the ladies that were up and down

her street and it was it was deterring her from opening up business there so what can we do

Police have not been able to address this and I know it's a problem that won't go

away anytime soon but we need to do what we can to discourage the trade so I

support councilmember Charlene's proposal on how to address this issue

it's not an issue that can just be ignored businesses and residents can't

afford for it to be ignored thank you

Good evening, Councilmember Wing and all other councilmembers.

My name is Reverend Dr. Kenneth Anderson.

I'm the senior pastor of the Williams Chapel Baptist Church located at 1410 10th Avenue.

We are the first church on International and so much has taken place that has allowed me

as a community leader not just a pastor to speak on this matter every week our

members report seeing all of the situation and laurering for the purpose

of buying sex and people being exploded right in front of our church and nearby

businesses we are the godparents to Franklin Elementary School our church is

building 67 units of affordable housing for seniors as well as a partnership now with

Head Start.

So we want to make sure that we get this community better and striving and making sure that we

know that our area needs to be safe.

So I welcome the city's proposal shift towards focusing enforcement on buyers and traffickers.

I recognize this has taken place throughout the Bible days.

I get that.

things we cannot erase.

However, we can be bold and we can also make it known

that children should not see naked girls on the street.

Men, women, seniors should not see all this violence

taking place literally right in front of a church house,

right in front of a clinic, right in front of a school.

So we support what's being done on this day.

Thank you.

Hello. First of all, I want to say thank you to Councilwoman Charlene and Bridget for creating

this space for Survivor Voices and for also giving me this platform. I'm deeply honored

to be here and to be included in this conversation. My name is Annabelle Velasquez and I am a

survivor of human trafficking, sexual assault, domestic violence, sexual exploitation. I'm

here today, not just for myself, but for so many survivors who wanted to be here and could not.

This meeting is during the workday, but they're trying to survive because the system hasn't

exactly made it easy for their voices to be heard, so I'm speaking for them too. Survivors' voices

have been muted for far too long. We've screamed into the darkness and nobody has listened. We were

punished instead of protected. We were silenced instead of supported. But today, we actually have

a chance to change that. I didn't need handcuffs. I needed help, safety, and a way out. This ordinance

matters because it finally stops blaming the people being sold and starts holding the buyers

and traffickers accountable. It recognizes what survivors already know, that exploitation is not

a choice. Survival is not consent, and demand is what fuels trafficking. But here's what's important

to understand. California's AB 379 already allows law enforcement to arrest buyers and traffickers

for loitering with the intent to buy sex what Oakland is doing now is updating

that municipal code to match a B 379 so the city can do something very unique

and wonderful this ordinance allows councilmember Wang to create fines for

buyers traffickers and nuisance property owners and to put those fines directly

into local victims or survivor services funds that means the people that are

creating them harm are the ones funding the healing not the taxpayers that is

smart survivor-centered policy and we already see that this approach worked

just this month OPD increased thank you for your comments your time is up

all right hello my name is Chen Nguyen I'm a former business owner in the

Little Saigon District and a parent of a child who attended Franklin Elementary School, which is

located a block away from the Blade, and now goes to Roosevelt Middle School, still located in the

San Antonio District. I currently work at Clinton Park, located on 7th and International, in the

midst of the Blade. For the past 10 years, I've commuted up and down International Boulevard almost

every day. I've watched our community change. What used to be something you only saw at night,

women dressed discreetly to hide what they were doing, is now out in the open all day long.

Today, I see women in see-through lingerie, high heels, from the time I drop off my daughter

to the time I pick her up. There's no filter anymore. This doesn't just affect one group,

It affects everyone who lives and works here.

It impacts school enrollment.

It forces parents to answer difficult questions from their children.

It affects community programs that struggle to keep participants.

It hurts local businesses because customers choose to shop and eat in other areas that don't have these issues.

Our police beat, 19X, has the highest crime rates of all of Oakland police beats for the past three years,

largely because the blade is located in 19X.

Now, I know some of you up there may feel different about this ordinance,

and it's understandable because it doesn't affect you or your district.

It only affects Little Saigon and San Antonio area within District 2.

You don't see street-level sex trafficking in District 1, 4, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7, but you do in District 2.

We live with it every day.

Every day.

So we've got 10 seconds, but I want to commend Charlene for bringing this issue forward and really talk about sex trafficking because it's...

Thank you for your comments.

I've asked a team of advocates to join me that are involved in outreach on a daily basis and

provide housing to survivors of human trafficking. My name is Vanessa Russell. I'm the founding

executive director of Love Never Fails and so grateful to be here. A Bay Area study revealed

that 94% of sex trafficking victims are female, 49% are minors, and 72% are girls and women of

color with the largest group being black. I think council member Wong has covered most of these

stats but I'll reinforce the demand for sex has escalated. Our streets are overrun with individuals

being trafficked in front of schools and businesses in broad daylight. It is absolutely

heartbreaking and it impacts us in so many ways. In 2024 there were 51 human trafficking cases in

District 2 alone. Ironically, sexual assault cases also grew at the same rate

as human trafficking. That is not an anomaly. Where you allow human

trafficking, you increase sexual assault. Also, sex trafficking was contributing to

the kidnapping of our children. In 2023, we were urging the city of Oakland to

declare a state of emergency because there were so many missing children. In

In fact, Councilmember Treva Reed pulled a report from OPD which said that there were 1,500 missing people, of which 400 were black women.

Human trafficking combined with Oakland's historical high poverty, homelessness, and crime tell the story of a city, a beautiful city, that needs a change.

Did you know also that 7% of homicides in Oakland are attributed to gender-based violence?

So there is a cross-section with all of these issues.

And what I want to share with you is human trafficking survivors are being beaten,

their ears torn, noses torn, stomped out, lost pregnancies, collapsed tracheas,

dislocated retinas, loss of hearing, head trauma.

This $4,000 does not even begin to reach into the impact that is being done.

I support that.

Hi. Hi. Thank you, Blair Beekman. Thank you for this item. I had more to say. I can't

remember what I was going to say, unfortunately. But I do, I have a basic thought that I'm

living in San Diego now, they work on their trafficking issues a lot.

There's a lot of issues in coming up from the border that should be of interest

in how to consider trafficking issues.

And originally being from the San Jose area, I think their county,

Santa Clara County, has done some really good work on human trafficking issues

that as you're addressing this item today can be a really good resource

and reference to work with them and communicate with them

about best practices.

They've been doing some important work

in trafficking things.

So I just thought I'd mention that.

Thank you for your time.

Good luck.

I want to compliment you.

Everything about what you're trying to do is correct.

The only issue I have is it's not complete.

What I mean by that is once you identify certain changes

or amending of codes as well as adding fines

and where's the enforcement,

the component of enforcement, how it takes place.

If necessary, what has to be provided

in terms of services and programs, okay?

My biggest issue with a lot that we attempt to do,

a lot of times it's not being done right.

And let me give you an example.

In 2018, there was the beginning of an attempt

to help girls 12 to 17 and a half

to have safe living spaces from six to 18 months.

It was called Clare House.

It was supported by then district attorney and Catholic charities.

It was supposed to be placed in an area that was not the right place to have it.

It was on the site of an elementary school where they were going to, a Catholic school that was now a chartered school

and was converting a nun's house into a safe space.

Very inappropriate.

It never opened because the proper licensing wasn't done by Catholic charities.

A lot of money went into it.

Nothing ever happened.

And I see this happen a lot.

We have opportunities to get work done for whatever cause, and it's not done right.

And then we don't get what we need to happen as results.

Lastly, I want to say when police officers are here, they have to be given the opportunity

to come before you because we have a shortage of officers.

Thank you for your comments, Ms. Olabala.

If your name was called and you would still like to speak on this item, please come up

to the podium or raise your hand on Zoom.

My name is Nancy Morton, live in District 1.

I've offered to help you, Charlene, with this problem.

I can't raise money.

I can't do any of these things, but I can house somebody that needs respite care.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Latoya Giggs.

I am the executive director of Divine Interventions, Inc.

and one of the founding members of the Bring Them Home Initiative.

And this funding is extremely, and this ordinance is extremely important

because the Bring Them Home Initiative is about the missing and exploited youth.

And we go throughout the state of California looking for a lot of them.

And a lot of the things that we run into is cost with funding.

When we need to relocate them and put them in a hotel, we need funding.

When we need to take them and fly them back to their homes, we need funding.

when we need to put them in a new location because they know where all

their family lives and they know where their house is they need funding so I

just wanted to say that and I appreciate you guys in this time thank you so much

thank you for your comments shared all names have been called and that

concludes all speakers okay great I did want to actually address some of the

public comments right off the bat there was a question around how are we

thinking about transportation and trafficking I would say separate from

this effort that I am working with community groups such as ebasy to think

through how we can use crime prevention through environmental design to look at

International Boulevard and in terms of what are the the things that we can do

like closing down side streets so buyer behavior that often relies on driving

into the grid system that is in place to to force them into the light so to

to speak, using just transportation interventions

to shut down those side streets.

I also wanted to discuss a little bit about the fine

amounts and how we landed on those.

Essentially, I sought to maximize those fine amounts

in a way that would not trigger a potential challenge

in the courts.

So that was something that our city attorney's office had

told us is that if we go too high,

that this would trigger a challenge.

And so those were the amounts that we were able to get.

And by using tools such as per violation, per day,

per victim, we could maximize just the fine amounts

that would ultimately go to survivor services.

Okay, Council Member Brown, you have a question?

Absolutely, so comment first.

I think I just wanted to just really thank

all of the members of the public who came,

whether it was a personal testimony or just talking through the experience of just kind of living in and around this type of environment.

And then also wanted to thank you, Councilmember Wong, for just your courage and your leadership in really trying to address this issue.

I think many of you may know that prior to me stepping into this role,

I did have the opportunity to work alongside Assemblymember Bonta in the legislature,

and I just think that, and, you know, yes, we're talking about Oakland,

but we know that this issue is, you know, throughout the state of California,

and I think I've just found that, you know, not too many legislators really have the courage to try to address this issue,

and there has been some baby steps, if you would, in trying to address the matter.

such as AB 379.

And so I guess that kind of leads to my questions that I have.

I know that you mentioned that OPD does need to leave,

so I will start off with questions directly to OPD.

I also have a finance question, also a question to the DVP

if they happen to be available as well but I guess just to jump start I am you

know curious you know how this piece of legislation really interacts with AB 739

and if OPD could actually walk us through this enforcement process when it

comes to just identifying the violators all the way through like the assessment

of the fines.

That sounds good and this in essence this is a the

administrative fines will sit in parallel similar to how we do

have for example with the legal dumping there's a misdemeanor

crime for illegal dumping but there's also the administrative

fines that we have but I will turn it over to OPD to talk

through how this would be enforced.

Good afternoon everyone Marcos Campos I'm the lieutenant of

police in charge of the special victim section.

Overseas the human trafficking unit, the vice child exploitation

unit.

653.25

that was signed in through AB 379 January 1st, 2026.

So it has the same elements as the ordinance.

Obviously, the ordinance hasn't been signed yet.

But for 653.25, we began the process of training the officers

new law created a PowerPoint that was approved by the district attorney's office. After that we did

lineup training with all of the patrol officers and after that for all of the patrol officers that

work in area 3 district 2 we actually had the vice officers ride with them in the uniform capacity

to show them what to look for. They like to fulfill the elements of the crime. The vice

officers have specialized training that allows them to recognize sex trafficking. So it enabled these officers to to be able to understand and the correct lens and to conduct enforcement with the ordinance come in and play. Once it does get signed in, we would do the same process. The plan is to do another PowerPoint, provide the training and then do physical right along with the vice unit where they would they would

GET A SO ONCE THEY WOULD IDENTIFY THE BEHAVIOR.

THEY HAVE THE OPTION OF ARRESTING INDIVIDUALS TAKING THE SANTA RITA JAIL FOR 65325.

THEY ALSO HAVE THE ABILITY TO CITE THEM BECAUSE THIS IS UNDER THE ORDINANCE IT WOULD GET A

CITATION SO THEY COULD DO AND OR BOTH. THEY'D HAVE THE CITATION AND I THINK WE'VE BEGUN

DISCUSSIONS ON HOW THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESS WOULD COMMUNICATE WITH THE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS

office but they have the ability to do both to enact both and enforce both

excellent thank you for that kind of detailed explanation and so would there

actually I know you said you know teeing up a PowerPoint to complete the

training but would there actually be a standard operating procedure and the

reason why I'm asking that because you know you know I've lived here my whole

life and some of us know that yes at this time this is happening in district 2 but we also know

that prior to that it was also in another part of the city of oakland right when it came to sex

trafficking and i guess i'm curious how do we ensure that all of our officers um are you know

operating and have an understanding of you know i guess what the vice team knows around the vice and

the team that specifically is working in and around this space in this area to make sure that every officer, I guess, is trained properly?

So every officer, when they do get this training, they have to sign off on it. It's called PowerDMS.

So it's our training portal. So every officer has to understand.

And then we do a physical lineup where every officer has the opportunity to ask questions.

We have had the 653 to 5 enforcement ramp up this year already. So we've made 30 arrests. There's been zero complaints. There's been zero issues with racial profiling and 70% of the suspects that have been arrested have been from outside of Oakland as well. So 30% has been from Oakland residents and we've

AND WE HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE

THAT ARE NOT GOING TO BE

ADMONISHED SO YOU HAVE READ

THE RIGHTS TO EACH SUSPECT AND

GIVEN THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO

GIVE AN EXPLANATION ON THE

ARREST.

SO THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR

OFFICERS TO MAKE DISCRETION IF

THERE IS ANY REASON THAT THEY

LEGALLY WERE SUSPECTED OF

COMMITTING THIS ACTIVITY AND

THERE IS ANY LEGAL BINDING

that get arrested to provide.

And there has been occasions,

I've seen it myself several times with investigators,

that if they do find a legal reason to let someone go,

they will let them go.

And then what does collaboration look like

with the DA's office?

So most of these cases, these 30 arrests,

because they're misdemeanors,

they are due for arraignment,

I believe, second week of February.

So all of these arrests, these 30 arrests,

they're due in February as of right now.

the DA's office has a team looking into the cases,

but they have not specifically charged any of them.

Okay, I see.

And then do you have an understanding,

and then maybe Council Member Wong,

you know the answer to this,

but since AB 739 kind of creates this state fund

and then now we're operating with this potential ordinance,

will folks be paying into both of the funds with the fees?

Yeah, so most likely it's going to be, for example, if the DA does not charge, then this would be a tool that is then invoked.

So basically they would be paying into the city fund instead.

And the reason that this is actually important is because, A, this is really something that's going to assure that the funds go to our local state organization.

Sorry, excuse me, local organizations.

organizations, the state fund, that has no, there is absolutely no guarantee that any of those funds

that are happening at AB 379 are going to go to help the survivors that are happening, that are

there on the blade, right? So that's one thing. But yeah, that's just one important thing. And then

B, because that is a misdemeanor arrest, very often, just as I had pointed out before,

very few purchasers are actually being charged, especially with a backlogged court system.

And so having an administrative court process is actually going to allow for more certain accountability.

And I guess just I'm going to ask the question again.

So basically for these penalties, so not only do they pay into our local survivor support fund,

but they also have to pay a fine that is going to support the state as well.

I think it would depend on how the officers charge them, right?

And so, but very often it would actually, if the DA does not charge, they would not be paid to that state fund.

And so the funds would, they would only be charged with the local citation.

I see. And then what is the, and I know, you know, AB 379, you know, just got signed into law and implemented.

and we're working on this.

But what is the outcome if these fines aren't paid?

If they are not paid,

so it would actually go to finance department

to handle through collections,

and this is, again, part of how we set the fines amount,

but those individuals would be taken to small claims court.

Interesting.

And then what happens?

are you aware of what happens with AB 379 when someone doesn't pay those fines?

Like a hotel or are you able to comment on that?

So like Council Member Wong brought up that you basically cannot charge both of them. It has to be one or the other.

And in 2025, I'm going roughly around my numbers. I think we had around 51 misdemeanor arrests.

And I think only one was charged to the district attorney's office, and that's through 647B.

That's our solicitation for prostitution.

As far as the collection of the fines, when it comes through the criminal courts,

right now the trend that I was being told is through the criminal courts,

most of these misdemeanors are not getting charged, and even if they do get charged,

the judge can opt for them to get diversion and they would not pay any funds that go through the state.

So the local ordinance was, I think, is the one that mandates you to pay,

but that state fund doesn't necessarily receive anything if the judge up front at arraignment orders diversion.

Okay. All right. I think I get that. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you so much.

I'M NOT SURE IF MY COLLEAGUE HAS ANY QUESTIONS FOR OPD.

I DO STILL HAVE A COUPLE MORE QUESTIONS, BUT I CAN PAUSE AT THIS MOMENT.

OK.

COUNCILMEMBER HOUSTON.

THROUGH THE CHAIR.

THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER BROWN.

HOW IS THE OPD WORKING WITH THE ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFF?

THROUGH THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, WHEN IT COMES TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING, THE OAKLAND

POLICE DEPARTMENT CONDUCTS THEIR OWN VICE HUMAN TRAFFICKING

OPERATIONS. THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT EVEN THOUGH THEY

OVERSEE THE COUNTY THEY DON'T THEY DO NOT COMMIT IN ANY

ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS IN OUR CITY. THEY DO THEIR ROUTINE

PATROLS. THEY SOMETIMES DO HIGH VISIBILITY POLICING AROUND

INTERNATIONAL BOULEVARD BUT THEY ARE NOT PART OF HUMAN

TRAFFICKING OPERATIONS. SO AGAIN THIS IS TO CHAIR WONG.

the the this polish and this ab seven i mean 379 um passed and amended by the governor in 7 30 25

right and it was went into effect 1 1 26.

why why couldn't we have just enforced this because it came down from the governor instead

of doing what we're doing here i'm just saying could it have been done it's so i'm of the opinion

it's a both and. So that is absolutely, this is going to, and we've been working with OPD to

enforce the new state provision. That is the AB 379, but he just provided the charge rate.

It's just because given the level of cases that we see, many of those cases don't get charged.

And as I said before, through the state fund, this is the state law, there is no guarantee

that those funds are going to be used to get the women and girls that are on international off of the streets.

It goes to a state pool, right?

There's many other cities that are challenged in California with this problem.

We've got L.A., San Diego, Sacramento.

We're all competing for that same set of funds.

And, you know, we do need to address.

We do need more services here in Oakland that can, you know, take the women and girls that we see on International out of this industry.

Through the chair, yes.

But they're victims.

I mean, we should be going after the buyers and the traffickers because it says here in Assembly Bill number 379,

punishable by misdemeanor imprisonment in the county jail not for more than one year but not

to exceed ten thousand dollars it says something really good here or what does this mean or a

felony by imprisonment in the county jail that's why when i say county jail i was wondering how we

were working with the sheriff um for 16 months or two or three years we need to send a they butts

to jail right you heard the lady to come up and said ten thousand dollars is

nothing right so why are we implementing this bill 379 as it stands I don't I

don't understand it do we just need training because it just was so it is

being implemented lieutenant Campos do you want to speak to the implementation

of AB 379 so it is being implemented but so often people fall through the

cracks and this is the this is the purpose of the municipal ordinance because as we know you know

something can be on the books that doesn't mean it's going to be enforced so it's creating another

tool so the chair so where is it for campaigning for like putting them on blast like you know how

do we put these people that are um committing these crimes buyers and traffickers on these

billboards just put them on blast embarrassment and in jail so is that is that something that

that we're gonna be doing.

Yeah, I mean, we definitely wanna look into that.

I will say that we are bumping up

against some First Amendment rights,

and so let's work on that in the future,

Council Member Houston, but I do ask for,

just for the focus to be on this particular ordinance

for this discussion and passing this.

Oh yeah, we're gonna pass it.

I'm just saying I wanna be able to.

Sounds good.

Good.

I just wanna, this has been going on way too long,

like councilmember Brown said it was on San Pablo for a while moved down to East

14th the E1 Ford then it's now over in your district so it's just moving around

it's where the hot spots there or where they can take advantage more right

certain areas they can't come and do it the same way they can do it in Little

Saigon because they bullies right so on that note I'll let councilmember Brown

take it take it back I got one more question after you councilmember Brown

Excellent. And I think that leads me to my next question that's just around enforcement.

You know, I continue to be 100% concerned for the victims, right, that are enduring this.

And so I guess, one, do you have an example of how, like, of those 30 arrests?

Or do you have any examples of how we are holding, like, the hotels and motels accountable?

I know that kind of outlined in this ordinance, you know, there will be a penalty.

So I kind of have a question.

Yeah, so I'm curious about that.

And then I guess like, you know, what does it look like if this, you know, in a way goes underground, right?

Whether, you know, maybe it's observed that, you know, this is taking place in homes or apartments.

How does this new ordinance kind of interact with that dynamic?

So we conduct, so primarily Oakland, unfortunately, is an open air sex market where most of our

prostitution, where the sex workers are being manipulated onto Oakland City streets on

International, opposed to other cities like Hayward, where most of their activity occurs

in the hotels. So if it does go, the activity moves to brothels or hotels, my vice team is prepared

to do operations into those hotels and be able to seek these buyers or to try to rescue sex workers.

But most of our violence, most of our activity is still occurring in open air.

I see. And do you feel that your current team has the operational capacity to really move forward with the work that's needed kind of in passing this ordinance?

Based on the operational tempo we have right now, we have in January we were doing two operations a month. I'm sorry, two operations a week for the month.

that's what created the 30 arrests. Moving forward obviously staffing is always going to be a

challenge but I think our team is up for the challenge and we're also talks of trying to

be involved in a county task force moving forward. And I've discussed with Chief Beer the enforcement

of this ordinance would actually also go to the patrol team and that is they're on you know the

the blade every single day.

So it wouldn't just be limited to the vice operations unit,

but the vice operations unit, as Lieutenant Campos has explained,

is critical to training the patrol unit to make sure that they

understand the buyer behavior to enforce this ordinance.

OK.

And then I think the other question that I had was,

how does this ordinance really kind of integrate

into Oakland's existing violence prevention

in kind of like youth supportive strategies and services.

So I don't know if there is any feedback from the DVP.

Like did you get a chance to talk with Dr. Joshi

on this ordinance?

I don't know if Dr. Joshi is here,

but she has been a member of the task force.

And we've also had discussions on just how early,

we wanted to make sure that this ordinance,

or I'll speak for myself,

I want to see this ordinance pass first,

And then our next step once this passes is to work with the DBP

to figure out the types of services

that we would want to fund with this, and in particular,

fill gaps.

So I am of the philosophy that, unfortunately,

the resources are scarce.

And so the goal is not, I know, unfortunately,

I don't have a better analogy, but we

can't have like the gold Cadillac for every victim.

but really it's about figuring out how we can design services

that can reach as many people as possible,

especially on the blade.

Hi.

Good afternoon.

I'm here for any questions about the DVP.

Excellent.

Yeah, I would love your thoughts and feedback.

My question was, you know,

how does this ordinance really integrate some

of Oakland's existing kind of violence prevention

and strategies already in place to help support victims.

And correct me if I'm wrong, perhaps maybe last year

there was a grant that we supported

that supports like Love Never Fails.

And I think there was a couple nonprofits.

And so just kind of wanted to get your feedback.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you for that question through the chair.

Currently, the Department of Violence Prevention

is funding over 10 community-based organizations,

some of them working together under one grant scope of work

and some of them with their own independent contracts.

But our current investment is $3.8 million for the year.

That is what council signed off on that you're speaking of.

And that funds crisis navigation, hotlines, life coaching,

emergency housing, transitional housing, healing supports,

and legal services to include some of the organizations

that were in here today speaking about trafficking.

So Love Never Fails, Family Violence Law Center,

Young Women's Freedom Center,

SHADE, the LGBTQ Center, Mujeres Unidas,

Sister to Sister, Ruby's Place, Covenant House, Andy Basie.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And then I guess maybe my last point on this is Chair Wong,

how do you intend to receive,

like how can, yeah,

how do you intend to receive data

and updates on the work?

Yeah, so that's actually something

that I will be introducing an amendment,

and I would urge my colleagues,

I want to, every day that this doesn't get passed

means another day that we're not using this opportunity

to enforce this ordinance

and actually, again, collecting funds

that could fund survivor services,

but I will be introducing an amendment if this goes to full counsel to just speak to having a report both on how the funding is being used,

because we do need some transparency around that, and then also, you know, who is being arrested as it relates to 379,

and then who's being fined as it relates to this ordinance.

yes I think my rec and I can send you this in writing but I think my

recommendation would be just a informational report maybe every six

months and I can send you a note of what parameters and maybe demographics or

just information that we we should include in that report sounds good

Councilmember Houston. Through the chair I'll finish up and I'm ready to move

move it. I wanted to ask DC Tedesco that's I really respect that officer so

much. Is he around? I'm not putting you on the spot officer Tedesco but I just

always love your input on everything because you so you know is this bringing

and clarity to being able to apprehend these buyers to stop the sex trafficking with these

children. I know it's not a fix all, but I just want to get your input on it because I respect

when you when you speak. Through the chair, I'm Deputy Chief Anthony Tedesco. And yes,

I believe this is an additional tool to help. I think

There needs to be criminal penalty for this behavior,

but there needs to be additional mechanisms for a system

that when we're seeing 30 arrests and we're seeing a gap in charging,

we need additional mechanisms for the city to be able to pursue penalty

for the people that are doing this injustice in our city.

I see this very similar as to, I think it was referenced earlier, to the penalty system for illegal dumping.

We can pursue criminal charges, but we can also pursue civil penalty so that the city can recoup the cost and repair the damage.

Thank you. Through the chair again, those additional mechanisms and gaps, can you just, not right here, but give us some input?

because you you on the ground you the one you know what's going on can you give us those those

additional mechanism and and gaps so we can add that later through the chair i will continue to

work on this issue absolutely thank you thank you tedesco

okay um we want to make the motion to move this thank you and i'll second that

thank you we have a motion made by councilmember Houston seconded by chair

Wong to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward this item to the

February 3rd City Council agenda on roll council members Brown aye council

member Fife is excused councilmember Houston aye and chair Wong aye thank you

item number four passes with three eyes one excused five to forward this item to

the February 3rd City Council agenda on consent now reading in item number three

receive the 2024 to 2025 annual information report from the community

policing advisory board and we do have five speakers that signed up for this

item

Let's Felicia if you're able to go ahead and present thank you.

Good afternoon Councilmember Wong and members of the committee I'm Felicia

Verdon assistant to the city administrator and I want to introduce

Colleen Brown who is a chair of the community policing advisory board she

the community policing advisory board is providing their annual report

Chair Brown has been involved with community policing for many years and is

an expert in the area she's a neighborhood watch block captain a

neighborhood council chair and and very engaged in this work I also want to

introduce the vice chair of the community policing advisory board Jacqueline Long

and I will turn it over to them to make their presentation thank you

I wanted to thank you for giving the opportunity to speak to you today on and give the Community

Policing Advisory Board.

My name is Colleen Brown and I am the current chairperson of the Community Policing Advisory

Board.

I'm a 40-year resident of Oakland, but I've been involved on and off in public safety

and other entities for 30 years.

You have before you, you have a report, but I will be giving a presentation which summarizes our needs and what we would like.

It's just a summary.

the community placings mission and annual focus is mainly we are an advocate for robust community

policing oh councilmember Houston we you can bring your lunch to the dais

So we're an advocate for robust community policing and engagement.

We represent 46 neighborhood councils and over 800 neighborhood watch and merchant watches.

The purpose of our annual report is to highlight the key actions, challenges, and recommendations for Oakland.

This report is long overdue.

I don't recall when we had our last one, but I believe it might have been before the pandemic.

So in that regard, we are out of our own resolution.

And we have a commitment to community partnerships.

We want to strengthen and collaborate with the city council, OPD, and our local stakeholders.

Community policing as it sits now was adapted first in 1995.

Resolution 72727 established community policing as the city policy.

In 2005 the resolution was expanded, which defined the roles of the block neighborhood and the city levels.

levels and

It mandated certain key components named namely the neighborhood councils the community policing advisory board

community policing officers now known as community resource officers and

Neighborhood watch and merchant watch all of these entities are to work together to solve common goals

it is a three-tiered community safety of citywide neighborhood and block levels which coordinate

efforts it's driven at the base it's the block level which is supposed to feed into the neighborhood

council and which work together with the city agencies and opa d the key roles and responsibilities

are filled by the CPAB, our neighborhood councils, the CROs, the neighborhood watch, and the

block captains. They all drive the engagement. However, in 2025, the neighborhood services

division was disbanded where everyone was laid off, and the loss of neighborhood services

coordinates has affected our support and equity. Despite our setbacks, the

community policing has reorganized in order to get back to our root focus of

supporting the neighborhood councils and neighborhood watches. In 2024-2025, we've

had strategic planning retreat where we were trained and we established our 2025

goals the CP we have enhanced neighborhood engagement where we've

assigned all the community policing advisory board members to observe

neighborhood council meetings and report back on what they see and what's the what

their struggles and what they need we've also improved in our enhanced

relationships in mainly in trying to build relationships getting email lists

and stuff and we have found out that the email list that the city had was woefully inadequate

so we were sending emails to people who are no longer active in their neighborhoods or even

we don't even necessarily have active for the neighborhood council leaders

the community policing advisory board we re-established our committees in order to

better serve our stakeholders and we have begun the long-awaited neighborhood

council recertification this is a triannual process in which we will we

have a form in which we contact all the neighborhood councils and we ask them

information we've showed that they're in compliance with 79235 they have bylaws

they have elections in their outreach and we're also solicit questions on what

their needs are the challenges facing community policing this we have had

significant staff reductions and with this neighborhood services division

eliminated and OPD and their seed CROs temporarily disbanded city has

eliminated the neighborhood council funding previously we had a fifty

thousand dollars towards neighborhood council funds but that has been

eliminated and the breakdown in communication is caused by the loss of

the neighborhood services division and it's disrupted the coordination between

neighborhood councils and the city agent agencies and we have reduced support for

leadership we have no staff to assist the neighborhood council leadership no

staff for neighborhood watch block captains and neighborhood watch steering

committee leaders so if someone wants to to form a neighborhood watch there is no

active phone number so there is no way to to gain more or if a person wants to

telephone to get in touch with their neighborhood council that is also not

not working at all.

If we could just let the presenter continue.

Okay.

So the impact of the neighborhood services division is we have no staff

community coordination the 46 neighborhood councils and the 800 neighborhood watch groups are lacking

city support when they abruptly eliminated these we had a loss of the records so we have neighborhood

councils who no longer have their email lists so continuing onward and forward with their neighborhood

council meetings has been a problem and unfortunately these are the

neighborhoods that probably need the most and that's where the underserved

area where they need where the neighborhood services coordinator was

doing most of the work and among the neighborhood councils that we had

all responded saying that the loss of the Neighborhood Services Division was their biggest setback.

With regards to our CROs, there have been significant reductions in the CROs.

in the CROs. The CROs have decreased from 57, which was in the original

resolution, down to 35, down to 8, where we currently have zero citywide.

This leads to strained community relationships and no CROs has weakened

engagement with the neighborhoods. The frequent reassignment of CROs is a

problem because it diverts it to non-community policing duties and there's

been challenges for neighborhood councils they're difficult with difficulty

addressing priorities and concerns it's frustrating because now we have

neighborhood councils who basically saying if there's no money and no CROs

coming to their meetings why should we continue and I don't want to see this go

forward additionally among the CPAB we have had persistent board vacancies we

have six open positions including mayoral and agency reps this has impacted our

the board functionality and it enters the ability to have a quorum and delays

key decisions and we have an urgency for appointments to expedite the selection

appointment and council approval needed to restore our full board capacity so

what I would like well what we would like you to do the city council is

reaffirm your commitment to community policing we want to strengthen adherence

to Resolution 79235.

Also, we would like to integrate community policing in the safety planning.

We want to partner with OPSPOC, which is the Measure NN Oversight Board, to ensure community

engagement is central.

We would like to restore and reassign staff support for neighborhood councils and neighborhood

watch.

We want to hire dedicated staff to assist neighborhood councils and neighborhood watch

merchant and block captains.

And we would also like you to reinstate funding for neighborhood councils and to allocate

$50,000 annual for the operations and outreach.

We would like to request a minimum of $85,000 for staff support.

The $85,000 is for a PSD-2.

$50,000 is for Neighborhood Council Operations.

And one of our mandates of the Community Policing Advisory Board is we are supposed to co-sponsor

the annual Safety Summit.

And at this point, there is no money, no resources, so we are unable to do it.

So we would like you to give us support in which we can work together with you and the

mayor in order to reinstate the summit.

The key takeaways and next steps, community policing is, did I miss one?

Oh, I did.

Okay, action items.

We want to allocate funding and hire staff, assign CROs to every beat, and we want to

ensure the community resource officers attend the neighborhood council meetings and address

the priorities.

Again reinstate the neighborhood council funds and engagement support, and we want to cooperate

with OPSPOC on safety planning to integrate community policing into their four-year safety

plan the key takeaway community policing is a foundation for safety it empowers

residents to address local concerns collaboratively we want to restore the

critical resources by reinstating staff and funding and it's essential for the

effective engagement we want to strengthen our board in partnership and

we want need to fill our vacancies and partner with the City Council and we

believe that will revitalize our efforts and we are asking for council action to

help rebuild community str trust and participation and we hope to be back

sometime later this year with an update on another report because it like I said

it was far overdue and we have to be answerable to you and our neighborhood

council community and myself and Jackie are here to answer any questions that

you may have okay colleagues any questions councilmember Houston so do

the chair for the public can you share what a CRO is the community resource

officer okay yeah cuz you know I when I used to hear all those acronyms I'll be

like what are you talking about so so people are clear how do we interact how

do you interact with we have the community policing oversight we have the

community police and review agency we have the community advisory board we

have the police Commission we also have the office of the inspector general we

We've got all these police, police, police.

How are we all interacting?

I mean, how are we working together?

Each of those groups actually has a specific focus.

So ideally, they should all be intertwined,

but they kind of have their own lane to speak.

The Measure N on oversight, for example, is primarily going to be in the funding aspect as well as programs.

Even though Measure NN does mention community policing, there's only five members in that board.

There's no way that they can be overseeing and working with the neighborhood councils and neighborhood watch and make recommendations.

That's why we want to collaborate with them.

With regards to the police commission, they're involved with overall greater policing strategies,

not necessarily in the depths of the neighborhoods.

Although they do have a subcommittee on community policing, they just are not really asking for it.

Am I answering your question?

Yeah, you are.

It's too many.

And we need to come together and have, you know, one group that's going to do it where it's like this, that, this.

So through the chair anyway.

That's all I wanted to say.

I'm looking at all these committees.

But, yeah.

Well, in our report, I didn't mention it, but we are asking to reinstate something that was, at least when it was the previous rendition of Measure N, where the police commission, the CPAB, the city council would all meet together to talk about a common issue at least once a year.

Yes.

And we're asking that you continue that.

Okay.

It's not necessarily mentioned with Measure NN, but I would highly recommend that we do something together to address common issues.

Right, right. To the chair. Hey, Jackie. How are you, Ms. Jackie? You want something to say?

I just wanted to mention with the police commission also, I know before they were actually organized, it was the Citizens Police Review Board,

and they actually were more discipline focused where the police commission took a broader picture

so they started doing a little bit more but I do want to say with their community policing

subcommittee that was something that the citizens police review board did not have in the past

and the community policing advisory board took the lead when it came to community policing in

Oakland working with the neighborhood councils working with neighborhood watch and merchant watch

Through the chair, we don't have neighborhood council any longer, though.

I mean, you know the neighborhood, the NSEs, yeah.

We don't have, correct, they were eliminated last April, if I remember right.

And so one of the things that we did ask for in this report was staff support.

One of the staff was reassigned to Department of Transportation.

And so instead of hiring, I know that the police department has, they would be willing if that person was transferred from Department of Transportation back to the police department, the full position was transferred back.

Then you would have a staff person who is already trained on training neighborhood watch groups, training merchant watch groups.

He is a trained septed inspection.

He's trained to do septed inspections.

And so if that position was transferred back,

where the Oakland Police Department

previously had oversight of Neighborhood Watch,

Merchant Watch, and the Neighborhood Councils

and Neighborhood Services Coordinators in the past,

you would have a staff person who could interface,

because right now there's nobody to interface

with the Neighborhood Watch, Merchant Watch,

and the Neighborhood Councils.

So through the chair, you guys see all that knowledge?

That's why she just got reappointed.

So thank you, thank you.

i'm sorry sir if you have a comment you have to go up to make public comment

um okay excuse me border in the chamber uh councilmember brown okay excellent um yeah

thank you so much for um this report um you know i had the opportunity to work pretty closely with

creighton i'm sure you all know um creighton and you know i i and during the pandemic i know he

We worked really hard to really support and make sure that the various neighborhood groups

had everything that they needed.

And so I know that at this time, just given financial difficulties that the city has had,

there were various cuts made.

but I recognize that the work that you know the neighborhood groups you know the NSCs the CROs

that you all were able to do in community this is like the community link to just the various

issues that are happening in our city and it really helps departments council staff to get

an understanding of what's happening, right?

And you kind of have that in line to really express

what the needs are.

And so I think that your timing is perfect, right?

As we go into the mid-cycle.

And so if anything, I think that the report

really stated very clearly what some of the asks were, right?

And so I think maybe one question, I have one question,

just curious, I know you made the recommendation

around I guess kind of engaging with the committee

that is set to allocate funds

and create a program plan under Measure NN.

I guess I'm just curious to see

if you all have had the opportunity

to meet with that committee and introduce yourselves.

And then I think also as we approach the mid-cycle,

really reaching out right now on public safety,

you just have three of my council,

just myself and two of my other council colleagues,

but I think more than anything,

just really making sure you outreach

to every single council member,

and just even sharing this report,

yes, it's on Legistar,

but just making sure that they have an understanding

of the gap and what your specific asks are,

and then, and seeing, but as I mentioned,

we know that we have some fiscal restraints at this time,

right, but I do think that your presentation

and your ask were just, they were quite clear.

And so on that note, just making sure

that the advocacy continues around why,

whether it's the NSCs, the CROs,

or just even the funding that went

to support the neighborhood councils,

why it was so crucial.

well order in the chamber go ahead i am hoping to rectify and actually start meeting with the

neighborhood with you council members because it is a partnership and there are members of

the community policing advisory board who represent each of your districts and minimally

I would be hoping that they would be meeting with their respective appointing authority.

Yeah.

I was going to say I just think that I've received feedback that a lot of the neighborhood

councils, I think it goes to the larger question of they don't feel supported in this moment

with some of the efforts. There's no CROs that's coming to the meetings and there's no

the neighborhood services coordinators were very just well situated in the

various communities that they were representing right to really help

support and so there's just some missing links at this time and so I think more

than anything as I mentioned as you we approach the mid cycle just really

picking up that advocacy and putting it on the the minds of all of our our

colleagues on the council okay sorry sir this is your third warning please I

will have you removed if please you can make public comment we have an open

forum but please no spontaneous commentary okay I do have a couple of

questions is actually DC Tedesco still here

Thanks, AT. So I know one thing that I think would be helpful for the public and for council to understand is we all know that we have an understaffing crisis, but why do the CROs, why do those positions get cut? And that was something that was highlighted in the report.

through the chair the police department's core function is 911 response so when people of the

community call 911 it is the duty of the police department to respond so we must staff our patrol

division to be able to keep up with the volume of 911 calls and we have seen based on city

auditor report and state and state report that the police department is

falling behind though I think we have improved recently on our 911 response

and so we cannot allow our patrol division to go understaffed additionally

there is a duty of the police department to then follow up on the reports that

that our patrol division is taking.

When we go out and take a report because somebody is the victim of a crime,

that then goes to our criminal investigations division for follow-up.

We must staff investigators to be able to actually follow-up on the crime

when there are pleads available so that arrests can be made,

so that evidence can be recovered, so that property can be returned,

so that justice can be done.

preliminary investigation alone is often insufficient to have a case criminally prosecuted.

So it needs follow-up investigation, and that is the job of our criminal investigations division.

And in current situations, both are understaffed,

and understaffed to a point where we have trimmed specialized units across the police department.

and to the point where our community resource officers were just no longer able to staff it.

It is something that we believe in for all the reasons that have been listed here today,

but it is just something that we cannot currently staff and support 9-1-1 and follow criminal investigation.

Yeah, that makes sense to me, and given that we recently got a report from the city auditor's office

on our lengthy 9-1-1 wait times, that is of the utmost importance.

I would say that it's fair to say that understaffing of the police department directly undermines our ability to do community policing.

Yeah.

One question I have for the board is,

given that the understaffing is what undercuts our ability to do community policing,

are you all undergoing an effort to help us recruit police officers?

and if not I'd like to I'd request that you do that because I think it's just

incumbent on especially given that we want community policing we need more

officers to have community policing I don't think that that's anything that

we're opposed to okay well that's great and I'll definitely reach out and see

how we can partner on that since the police recruitment is something that

I've been engaged on. My other question is just some of the

recommendations that you all made. You noted the police service technician level two being

something needed. Is that just one position that you're saying is needed to staff your all efforts?

At this moment we were requesting the one position because currently there is someone who's fully

trained who again who was transferred from neighborhood services when it was

eliminated to the Department of Transportation and so he would be able

to come in and be able to work at the police department as a fully trained

staff and already knows what to do with neighborhood watch merchant watch and

with the neighborhood councils okay that's helpful historically has there

been more than just one correct I think when they were disbanded and I apologize

because I don't know the exact numbers but I believe that there was one manager

who was housed in the city administrator's office well they were

all in the city administrator's office let me correct myself but there was a

manager two supervisors and if I remember right there were four

neighborhood services coordinators two police service technicians and one

administrative assistant and of course we would love to have more positions we'd

love to have all of them back or even more because in the beginning when it

originally started there were 19 neighborhood services coordinators

there were plans to hire 25 but as the budget has just in the budget has

impacted the hiring and unfortunately staffing decreased over the years okay

gotcha understood okay I know we have Councilmember Brown and then I just

wanted to provide some clarity I know that a couple of the NSC's that and of

course through the chair to the administration if an administrator

Navarro Navarro knows but it's my understanding that the NSC's that were

moved to other departments are operating in different roles under that umbrella.

I know of one who's currently with the Department of Transportation and doing

functions that are specific to that particular role not equal to kind of

what they were doing in the past and so it would be under and I think it's a

specific funding source to which they are being paid as well and so I don't

if there's the ability to actually like transfer them back to you know then do an additional role

but i'm happy to add more i asked a lot of questions about this during the mid during the

budget last year so i'm happy to update you as well council member wong and then i think just

for clarity council member houston i think the report this is simply an informational report

so we would just be receiving and filing it but when you look at the last page of the report

there's a list of like seven or eight um i guess ask that the cpav wants us to keep in mind i would

say as we approach the mid-cycle just in summary so i will make a motion to receive and file this

report in committee okay great we do have some public comments so let's move to that before we

take a vote on this uh councilmember houston and i'll second that but um dc tedesco had mentioned

some things is what he mentioned is in the back before he asked because I heard

him ask and I just couldn't follow it all the way he had mentioned some stuff

that he needed and I wasn't yeah go ahead I believe I think the question

that council member Wong prompted the chief was yeah the chief was just adding

clarity that at this time given opd staffing levels it's challenging to actually like have

cro's right that's the summary the ask is really that we need to hire more police right so we got

the budget coming around so we gotta listen hear what he's saying so which you know in my

understanding we've allocated um you know uh for the police academies and various things so we got

to build up our police force and i think that that is the goal right now also i would say need to

figure out some of the holdups. One thing that my office and myself have been

looking at is because for example that Academy marketing for the Academy that

we had gotten as a budget amendment it has still not been spent and it's in

part because there have been issues with procurement I don't know Sophia if

you're able to speak to any of that but um things that we need to work on

urgently that way when we fund those academies there's actually individuals

it. Thank you. Also which is why my request to you is you all help us because it actually will

further your own goals around community policing. Okay I do want to listen to the public comment

so let's move to that. Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number three in no

particular order you can come up to the podium or if you hear your name and you're on zoom please

raise your hand. Asada Olabala, Blair Beekman, Donald Dahlke, Rajni Mandahl, and Jennifer Finley.

Yes, good afternoon. Hopefully some of my testimony will help address why this agency is different

than those other agencies you talked about.

My name is Donald Dahlke and I live in Maxwell Park.

I'm also a board member

on the Maxwell Park Neighborhood Council and I served

with Creighton on the CPEB several years ago.

The report is an excellent report.

I think it documents all the issues tremendously well.

Oakland has basically abandoned its neighborhoods and the hundreds

and thousands of volunteers who work to keep their neighbors

on their block safe and also come to neighborhood council meetings to identify

and prioritize and try to work on solving public safety and quality of life issues

in their neighborhood.

They're supposed to have a neighborhood services coordinator who is a city staff

to help them work through the city process.

Also OPD, they help them work on public safety issues within the neighborhood council.

So they work cooperatively with the city and the OPD.

The council and the administration has allowed this proven public safety strategy to be decimated,

as the report also says, through the years by continually decreasing the funding for neighborhood services division.

It's even been eliminated recently.

and the community resources officers that are part of OPDs that support the public safety aspect of neighborhood councils.

This has been particularly damaging in the underserved neighborhoods of color that experience the most significant crime and public

and also quality of life issues, both in East and West Oakland.

That's where most of the support is really needed.

I'm a realist, though, and I acknowledge that there's serious budget deficits.

that the city is facing.

However, I am urgently asking the members,

and unfortunately it's not gonna be,

as I understand this is just informational,

asking the members of this committee

to forward to the full council.

Recommend.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is up.

Thank you for your comments.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Thanks a lot for this item.

It is large.

It does a lot, possibly.

You know, the past few years in Oakland,

council was spending a lot of time on community issues,

how to deal with, you know, more than just law enforcement,

how to deal with our neighborhoods to address our issues.

And I guess we're at the point now where we're asking how can, you know,

community policing services be a part of that work of the past few years.

And there's a broad number of subjects that community policing covers.

I hope you guys can be addressing it.

You've got a good beginning list and it can be worked on.

I think there's a certain feeling that community policing is somehow the part of the man and

it doesn't really serve people who need it most or a lot.

Who need it?

And it just serves that wonderful, the regular community and not people who are in a bit

of trouble.

And so people may shy away from it.

How do we make that more inclusive for all of Oakland to work on?

I'm really hurt that you have let go of the two previous police review commissioners who, in this body,

the community policing body is offering a very broad picture that can invite all parts of the community you're trying to work for.

The police review people that you let go of, they had a very specific good mission that was very, very focused.

And I think they were learning how to really use that to be a, to create part of the full community process you're going for in Oakland at this time.

They could have offered really good advice to this process, and we need their voice in how you're going to build the future of these community policing things.

Good luck. This can be a really good project. Good luck in your efforts. Thank you.

I think it doesn't do well to not recognize that as it relates to the shortage of staff.

You need anywhere from 800 to 1,000 police officers to perform the safety that is adequate

in this city.

And I encourage this body to take a step back and say what's important is that we have officers

available to respond to 911 and don't continue to advocate for something that you're not

going to be able to have because it's not possible at this point.

So why keep bringing up we need the community resource officers?

You can't have them now because we don't have enough officers for patrolling.

So put that on the side for a little while and it's going to be a long time.

Now I appreciate the opportunity for people in their community to sit down and discuss

what are the issues in my community that need to be addressed.

And I have the power to say this is important and to do something about it.

So in the report, I would have liked to see, in any form or fashion, what last year did

you do related to areas and what were the issues you dealt with and some that got done

and some that didn't get done and identify why they were successful, why they weren't.

That's what I want to see.

I think this board needs to be reconstructed.

It's just too many people, three members by the mayor, eight appointed by the city council,

one appointed by the OHA, one appointed by OUSD, two members appointed by the NS, neighborhood

watch group.

That's just too much.

But these people work hard.

And the new chair-

very tall

thank you for your comments miss olabala moving to zoom user rajne mandal you can unmute yourself

and begin your comments rajne mandal district 4 cpap was created to oversee a community policing

structure that no longer exists in practice neighborhood services division has been dissolved

neighborhood services coordinators eliminated and cro's basically reduced or reassigned the

institutional framework that CPAP was designed to support has effectively collapsed. Against that

backdrop, this annual report documents internal activity, work plans, committees, outreach materials,

but does not demonstrate concrete improvements for neighborhood councils or the public.

There is little evidence that CPAP has improved communication, restored community policing

capacity, or addressed the operational gaps neighborhoods now face. In my outreach to

neighbourhood councils after the dissolution of the neighbourhood services division most reported

that they have been operating largely on their own for years. City support was described as largely

technical, just Zoom and OWL set up, while substantive coordination and problem solving

fell to volunteers. Longtime North Hills leaders who attended CPAP meetings reached similar

conclusions. It was encouraging discussion but little measurable impact. Today, community policing

in Oakland is hyper-local, driven by dedicated residents and increasingly direct engagement

with Council members' offices.

Those direct relationships have been proven to be more responsible and accountable than

a citywide advisory layer.

CPAD's report also references potential grant funding but doesn't explain how the funds

would be administered, monitored or evaluated, particularly as police beats and neighbourhood

council boundaries are actively being reassessed.

Given these realities, I believe CPAD has run its course.

should focus instead on strengthening direct neighborhood to city engagement and supporting

the volunteers already doing this work thank you thank you for your comments chair that concludes

all speakers on item number three and we do have a motion on the floor and a second okay actually i

have a few more questions uh just before we move to vote um just on the request for funding is that

listed out by your priority like is in fact even the police service technician

role helpful if we don't have CROs for example I'm just wanting to understand

if because we are in a budget deficit so it is it would be important for this

body to understand if you had to choose what are the most important things that

would make an impact historically the neighborhood council funds were divided

equity among the each of the police beats so that if a neighborhood council

had one community policing be it would get one fifty-seventh of the dollar

amount if they were a combined beat they would get twice that amount and three we

had certain guidelines in order for administrating we didn't mention it until

today but we we are working on a funding program in which it would be grant-based

and perhaps more focused on visions and what they can do but it was not it was

just an equity but that doesn't mean that it can't be changed in the future

to become more need-based versus sorry just to clarify my question is more

around you identified three the either the staff so one police service technician funds for the

neighborhood council funds which I've heard that's actually been that is being paid for by pg&e but

the funds are difficult to access at least from my local uh the ones in the district district two

and then the citywide safety summit if you had to rank through the chair yeah if we had to rank it

would be the staff okay okay thanks great all right let's move to the vote thank you we have

a motion made by councilmember brown seconded by councilmember houston to receive and file

this informational report in committee on roll councilmember brown sorry aye councilmember five

is excused councilmember houston aye and chair wong aye thank you item number three passes with

three eyes one excused five to receive and file this informational report in

committee moving on to open forum we do have three members that signed up to

speak calling in the names that signed up to speak for open forum in no

particular order you can come up to the podium or raise your hand missus

Sara Olavala, Blair Beekman, and Rajni Mandahl.

Sanja Massey, Breonna Taylor, Tatiana Jefferson.

Black women killed in their homes.

One in bed, one playing with her nine year old nephew,

another just holding a pot of water.

I'm very sorry that people are going through the same thing we've been going through,

and that is if you encounter people who are enforcement officers, you can get killed.

So I'm going to recommend something to stop that process.

Historically and traditionally, African American families go through a process called the talk.

In that process, we warn our family members, when you encounter people who are disrespectful

when they handle you, you have to be careful of how you interact with them, or you can

get killed.

And this last individual who was killed in Minnesota, the day before, his mother gave

him the talk, and it didn't work.

So I want to encourage people who are dealing with ICE.

You cannot approach these people and have the expectation that your life will not be

at risk.

It will be.

And we've been having this conversation for decades with our black boys and men.

So I hope at some point it stops, but this is just history repeating itself for another

group of people.

And so I hope it can be ended in some form or fashion, but we need to be careful of how

we deal with people who will take your life and it means nothing.

Hi. Thank you. Nice words. Good luck that we can all be addressing Minneapolis more clearly

now and our future. A person offered a public comment sheet also here. Hopefully he can

be speaking as well if needed, if possible. Some in Oakland may want a start over of the

Oakland public meetings and its public meeting decisions from this fall. I feel in the very

least we need to better learn public meeting clarity and explanations for Oakland public

meetings in 2026, and for ourselves in Oakland to be more open and clear when a council agenda

item is being overly rushed for approval. Hopefully we can see that. And that we can

be more openly question ideas of council agenda urgency. It can be okay to slow it down. As

one thing should be clear in looking for an upcoming new AOPR vendor, positive good options,

choices and decisions can always be addressed and available for the future of the Oakland

public process. Thanks for your work on working on a new FLOC vendor, a new ALPR vendor, besides

FLOC. It was a form of compromise that's been really interesting, I think. And however you

work that compromise, if FLOC was somehow involved for some of their own PR, it took

a lot of commitment from yourselves as council and as City of Oakland to really bring a compromise

anyway. And to work for that, it does deserve merit. Good luck that we really want to continue

working on it. I can see us growing half-hearted about it at some point. Trump has obviously proven

you guys made a great decision that we are working together as a community to address our issues,

that we can have control. And it's really nice what you guys have been doing.

I'm going to be moving back to San Diego in February.

I'll try to continue to attend meetings, and thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments.

Switching to Zoom user Rajneemandhal, you can unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Rajneemandhal, District 4.

I want to raise a concern about process and transparency in public safety leadership.

Recently, the police commission selected a permanent director of the Community Police

Review Agency in closed session, choosing the interim director without public recruitment

or any opportunity for community input.

While the charter permits the commission to hire the director, this departs from past

practice.

For a body called the Community Police Review Agency, community trust depends not just on

who leads it, but on whether the community has visibility in how that leadership was

chosen.

This matters as we now turn to the search for a permanent chief of police.

Chief Mitchell announced his resignation about three and a half months ago,

and yet we are here with no job posting, no candidate pool, and no clear timeline.

Only ongoing discussion about hiring an outside recruiting firm.

Oakland has been here before.

The last chief search took over a year, leaving the city in prolonged interim leadership.

Many in the community are asking a basic question.

Why slow this down?

Why not immediately post a position and invite qualified candidates,

especially internal leaders who understand Oakland's complex oversight

accountability and organizational structure to apply an open posting could

readily produce three strong candidates and move this process forward now

process discipline matters community confidence matters and delay has

consequences thank you thank you for your comments chair that concludes all

speakers for open forum

I know councilmember Houston wanted to close this session with in honor and

recognition of someone if councilmember Houston go ahead yeah I wanted to close

this meeting in honor of Bridget cook she was a chief of staff for district 3

she's been ill stage 4 cancer for a long time and spoke to her every week right

every week she gave me advice on how to behave and the last time I spoke to her

last week she was saying ken i'm not good i'm not doing good i'm not good she was always at work and

she passed so i wanted to close the meeting under her name bridget cook we'll bow our heads in silent

for uh 30 seconds

Okay.

Thank you so much, council member.

All right.

And with that, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.