By Matthai Kuruvila
The San Francisco Chronicle
OAKLAND, Calif. — Oakland is hiring back 32 of the police officers it laid off last year, officials said Thursday, bolstering a force that is still trying to adapt to the loss of nearly 200 beat cops and inspectors over three years.
The department now has 659 officers, including 27 rehired officers who just started retraining and will be on patrol by Aug. 16. The other five officers will be brought on by December.
The 32 officers are among 80 laid off in 2010 to help the city balance its budget. Through retirements, resignations and layoffs, the city has lost 178 officers since 2008.
Police Chief Anthony Batts said he would put the rehired officers in high-crime areas in East and West Oakland, which account for the overwhelming occurrence of violence in the city.
The city is divided into 35 policing beats, but Batts said four beats in East Oakland account for 65 percent of its homicides. Another four in West Oakland account for 27 percent.
The city was able to rehire the officers because of retirements, transfers and budget negotiations by the City Council. Batts said he was confident the city could find federal money to pay for another 32 to 36 rehires, although Mayor Jean Quan cautioned that the funding is no sure thing.
“We’re getting good signs,” she said at a news conference with the chief.
Batts said last year’s layoffs had hindered police efforts to prevent crime. In West Oakland, a targeted enforcement effort had led to a two-year reduction in crime, he said, but the cutbacks have allowed a new group of troublemakers to take over neighborhoods. The rehired officers will try to change that.
In East Oakland, Batts said the violence is more random in nature and defies “any clear pattern.”
Quan said the police rehiring was part of a strategy that also relies on people getting more involved in their neighborhoods. That means residents joining local watch groups and crime-prevention councils and volunteering to mentor youths, she said.
“Murder and violence is not something I’m going to solve in a news cycle,” Quan said.
Copyright 2011 San Francisco Chronicle