OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — California’s governor announced plans Thursday to send prosecutors to Oakland in his latest move to crack down on rising crime in the San Francisco Bay Area city where brazen robberies in broad daylight have drawn national attention.
Gov. Gavin Newsom days earlier said he would deploy 120 California Highway Patrol officers to also help with targeted crackdowns on criminal activity in Oakland, a city of 400,000 people across the bay from San Francisco that has seen a spike in violent crimes, including serious drug-related offenses, retail theft, and auto burglaries, even though crime in other California urban centers is falling.
The additional deputy attorneys general from the California Department of Justice and attorneys from the California National Guard would help Alameda County prosecute suspects arrested for serious and complex crimes, Newsom said. He didn’t say how many prosecutors would be sent or when.
Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods called Newsom’s plan “a band-aid to fix a broken arm.”
“More prosecution and more police is not the solution here,” Woods said in a statement. “We need housing, money for community-based organizations, higher wages, employment, as well as money for our schools, medical care and mental health.”
“An arrest isn’t enough,” Newsom said in a statement. “Justice demands that suspects are appropriately prosecuted. Whether it’s ‘bipping’ or carjacking, attempted murder or fentanyl trafficking, individuals must be held accountable for their crimes using the full and appropriate weight of the law.”