A Couple of Facts from San Francisco Police

The San Francisco association of police officers sent a letter to Oakland residents. It reads, in part:

Adjusting for a population ratio of about 3:2, San Francisco still has many more police than Oakland. At the current staffing level, we have half a police department.

Also noteworthy is the statement that many San Francisco officers live in Oakland. There is a reason police tend not to live where they work. Their families are nervous about being in the same city as thugs whom the officer might have arrested. The exposure to danger and retaliation is just too much.

OPD understaffing is not news. Councilmembers have known it at least since they campaigned for Measure Y in 2005, because opponents of that proposal made the fact well known.

The police union, after making contract concessions last year, has all but said they would give back on their pension contributions now.

• But the officers read the budget provision to cancel police hiring and training academies for the next two years. The City would not replace about 100 police who take normal retirement and resign in that period.

• The officers hear councilmember Quan talk about tearing up the Measure Y floor of 739 police. She obviously intends to have fewer than 739 police.

• The officers know that several dozen of them are paid with a federal grant that runs out in two years, with little chance of full renewal. City Hall has no plan for what to do then. Furthermore, layoffs violate the conditions of the grant, which could be terminated early.

• The officers read that layoffs are almost certain even if they take a pension cut; it's only a matter of now or six months from now.

Oakland police have every right to ask, why should we throw our brothers overboard when the council already says, we'll be back at you next year and next? Oakland residents ask much the same question: why should we vote to give City Hall more money when councilmembers lied to us about Measure Y and will only come back a year later demanding even more money?

Where is the comprehensive structural plan? No City Hall official has suggested a path to getting out of the structural mess. No official has even generated public confidence that he or she wants to solve the structural problems, willing to do what it takes.

Police layoffs take us to the tipping point where Oakland is no longer a viable city in any civilized sense.