Oakland's Budget Shortfall Could Force Cuts

OAKLAND-For months, Oakland leaders have considered cutting the city's $290 million police budget in half, a goal set to meet the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement and turn a department haunted by past misconduct into a national model.

Now, as city officials struggle to fill a widening budget hole, a memo by the interim police chief provides the first glimpse of what a more modest cut might look like.

It could mean that activists get some of their demands met, such as relieving police of their duty to provide security when city workers clear homeless encampments. But it could also mean freezing youth mentorships, ending foot patrols of the bustling Uptown district, and paring back a celebrated program to curb gun violence.

In the Dec. 14 memo obtained by The Chronicle, interim Police Chief Susan Manheimer laid out a blueprint for a leaner police force, with about $22.4 million stripped. The document is addressed to City Administrator Ed Reiskin, who asked every department to create a plan to reduce spending by up to 20% through June, when the City Council will pass its next budget.

The chief makes her misgivings clear at the top of the document: "Note that OPD is not recommending or proposing any of the service cuts in this memo," Manheimer wrote. In an interview, she cautioned that the memo is a draft and that it will probably be revised several times.

But on Friday, the Police Department made its first cut, eliminating details that put extra officers in areas with high rates of violent crime. Other forms of "discretionary" police overtime — for services such as motorcycle traffic cops and investigations of fatal crashes — could be next on the chopping block, the chief said.

"We at Oakland Police Department absolutely understand that we need to do our part to reduce expenditures and we embrace that," Manheimer said in a text message. "The sad part is that we know that each of these critical overtime and program cuts reduce vital prevention, intervention, and safety services to those we serve."

The interim chief's list of possible cuts also includes a police detail that focuses on sideshows, in which drivers take over an intersection or freeway to do stunts and flaunt muscle cars for spectators. Additionally, the department could cut costs if it stopped deploying officers to monitor protests and gatherings, according to the memo, or by shrinking Ceasefire, a mediation program for alleged gang members.

First used in Boston in the 1990s, the model has been credited with cutting gun violence in many cities. Targets of the program are offered counseling and services while being warned that continued misbehavior will prompt a police crackdown.

A study by the Giffords Law Center found that the program helped decrease homicides in Oakland before the pandemic. Reducing Ceasefire by 25% would save about $900,000 in six months, Manheimer said.

The need to stanch the city's $62 million budget shortfall has complicated an already tense effort to improve policing in Oakland. After nearly two decades of federal court oversight, stemming from a 2003 civil rights settlement over four West Oakland officers who allegedly beat and planted evidence on residents, the police force has yet to complete several mandatory reforms.

At the same time, the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis has garnered popular appeal for once-radical ideas on disbanding law enforcement. In July, the City Council formed a Reimagining Public Safety Task Force to defund the police and reinvest the money in social services.

But the 17-member task force has produced many ideas and little agreement. And polling indicates that residents of the neighborhoods most affected by crime — and police brutality — appear to support the goal the least. Task force members who represent these neighborhoods have urged their peers to test-run alternatives before slashing the police force in half.

After the coronavirus pandemic forced schools and businesses to close, violence spiraled for six months in Oakland. A wave of homicides left 101 people dead, as police also found themselves overwhelmed by sideshows and protests. And then there was the virus itself: As of Sunday, department has had 64 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

"We will take overtime dollars, and spend them, because we are so short-staffed in our patrol force," Manheimer said.

Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, a group that has long pressed Oakland to reduce its police budget, said she is disturbed to hear that City Hall was dictating the cuts.

She said Reiskin, the city administrator, "should be having this conversation with the task force." Brooks for years has pushed Oakland to shift money and responsibilities from the police and instead hire unarmed civilians to do the work.

"It's not just about cutting dollars," she said. "It's about what are we replacing it with."

The co-chairs of the task force, City Council members Loren Taylor and Nikki Fortunato Bas, declined to comment on the budget negotiations. So far, the administration's efforts to rein in Oakland's fiscal crisis have not required council approval.

Even so, Bas noted that all city departments "need to be held accountable" and said aggressive spending on police drove the current deficit.

The city ended its fiscal year in June with a $30 million shortfall. The gap doubled by December, largely because the Police Department exceeded its budget: According to a report from the city's finance director, the department spent $19 million on overtime it had not anticipated.

Barry Donelan, president of Oakland's police union, declined to comment.

Last Monday, Reiskin sent a memo to all city departments announcing a hiring freeze, a moratorium on temporary workers and a halt to conferences, travel and professional training. He also asked each agency to submit budget plans for two scenarios — a 10% reduction and a 20% reduction — by Jan. 6.

Without "immediate and significant expenditure reductions, the General Purpose Fund will be insolvent by the end of the fiscal year, meaning the City will not be financially capable to address emergencies, let alone many general services," Reiskin wrote.

Manheimer said the potential cuts listed in her memo will probably change over the next few weeks as the mayor and city administrator weigh in.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @rachelswan

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