Adams Point Kidnapping
Not Oakland Police's Top Priority

That's the headline on columnist Peggy Stinnett's report in the Oakland Tribune, Sept. 19, 2005.

It turns out to be another result of serious understaffing at the police department.

After a terrifying kidnapping from her home, Noreen, as we will call her for safety, was transported at gunpoint in her own car to Merced. With an alert sense of the right moment, and considerable courage, she broke away during a stop and escaped.

Stinnett goes on, "(Oakland) police were thorough taking fingerprints from the car, the bicycle and the bedroom, said the couple." While the kidnapper held the victim, he let out that he had served time for sex offenses and would be put away forever as a three-striker if he were arrested.

Despite the evidence, the investigation has limped along. Fingerprints took weeks to move from one desk to another. Hot leads went cold. After four months, the victim and her husband have heard no news.

The community policing officer who works with the Adams Point Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council admitted to a meeting of concerned neighbors that police are "short-handed." Did a kidnapper also know that Oakland has half a police department?

Meanwhile, the City collects a Measure Y parcel tax from kidnapped Noreen and her husband on their old home, without fulfilling the obligation to provide at least 802 officers with that money.

Months and Months Later –
Still Nobody Knows Nothin'

The home invasion, armed robbery and kidnapping occurred May 20. But columnist Peggy Stinnett reports that in mid-November Deputy Chief of Police Jeffrey Israel promised a public meeting he would look into the case, yet two weeks later he still knew nothing about it. At another public meeting, Chief of Police Wayne Tucker said he would look into the case, but he, too, has not responded. The officer who works with the Adams Point Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council made the same commitment, but neither she nor any other police officer has contacted the woman who was kidnapped. (Oakland Tribune, Nov. 28, 2005)

A neighbor of the victim made several inquiries and received "the same consistent answer by the investigating sergeant that homicides and attempted homicides took precedence and the crime lab couldn't handle anything else. We also heard that the lab was short staffed, as was the rest of the OPD." (Memo quoted in Oakland Tribune, Jan. 5, 2006)

Partial Resolution at Last

Columnist Peggy Stinnett's unrelenting attention to the case finally led to a partial resolution. Police and the victim met for almost three hours. The victim is resigned to the fact that the case will probably not be solved. (Oakland Tribune, Jan. 9, 2006)

Stinnett goes on to examine the city council's understaffing of our police department. For details, click here.