Greetings Upper Rockridge Neighbors,
This is your monthly URNA Newsletter to help us better stay in contact with you!
(This mailing is addressed to: Current and Former Members of URNA, Volunteers, Newsletter subscribers. Feel free to forward to anyone and ask them to subscribe)
OKAY, Truth is that only about 1/4 of the URNA Newsletter readers are active members!
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE: We really need more URNA members to sustain/grow the patrols and cameras! We want to add more evening hours (many car break-ins lately) and WE NEED YOUR HELP. We know a lot of you have alarm systems already and even some with patrols, but MORE PATROLS means lower crime statistically and our patrol watches the neighborhood, not just individual subscribers. PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING URNA. We have a low-low rate for Associate members now too. Help us keep the neighborhood safe. Thx. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NEW MEMBER RATES BELOW
Village Market Membership Drive table: Do you have some time to help man a table and hand out flyers to our neighborhood hub visitors? Please contact us.
NEWS
Apr 29 Meeting with OPD/City Council
Did you know that there are SEVEN different Neighborhood Associations in the Rockridge area of Oakland? And we're talking security-focused groups that hire patrols, offer security advice, etc., just as URNA does. What does this mean? Well, you probably know already - that our area could use more of a police presence to aid in crime prevention, but that is not the reality now, so we've all started efforts to make up the difference. There are a few good signs, and on April 29, URNA and six other Oakland neighborhood patrol groups met this with OPD Deputy Chief Darren Allison, Captain Randy Wingate, Our CRO (Community Resource Officer) Kristine Jurgens, City Council-members Annie Campbell Washington and Abel Guillen, a representative from Dan Kalb's office (he was traveling), along with Patricia Rose - our NSC (Neighborhood Services Coordinator), to discuss crime trends and ways to improve coordination with OPD.
Some Oakland stats first - Good news/bad news:
The good news is that OPD is budgeted for 797 officers and staffing is currently up to 753 officers. Since Mayor Schaff took office the staffing increased from 600 - 753 officers! Good progress, although some analysis recommends 1200 officers for a city of our size.
The bad news is that Oakland faces significant challenges in its 2017-2019 budget, which projects a $32 million deficit. The budget does include a third police academy to bring staffing up to the authorized number. Other items:
- OPD had monthly meetings with security companies in past and we're looking into re-starting those, likely with a quarterly meeting frequency.
- AREA CRIME Stats are available anytime on City web site. Here is the link for AREA 2 stats. (URNA: We are in Area 2 and Police Beat 13X - FYI)
Deputy Chief Allison and Captain Wingate also spoke about:
- Citizen home camera video can be very helpful for identifying suspects in crimes! Urged all to use the Oakland CAMERA REGISTRY (click to see info below)
- "Ceasefire" efforts focusing on the highest-risk individuals have helped drive down crime in Rockridge and the Oakland hills.
- CHANCES OF ANOTHER OFFICER ON BEAT 13: New OPD Chief Kirkpatrick open to looking at the deployment model - in place since 1970s. So, it is possible, but hard to judge...
- OPD Priorities: Obvious that they prioritize physical harm or the risk of it in responding to calls. If you call in a crime, make that your priority too. (Example: A robbery will have slower response than a robbery with possible robber on premises, etc.)
If you feel that public safety should continue to be prioritized, please attend Dan Kalb's public budget forum on Saturday, May 13, from 10am to noon at Beebe Memorial Cathedral or one of the other six budget forums listed at https://beta.oaklandca.gov/issues/budget.
Oakland Camera Registry - you can help solve crimes!
There is a Camera Registry in our city. The Camera Registry is volunteer run and they don't store the data. (Doesn't fall under Freedom of Information Act - for those of you concerned about privacy of such information). The police can be greatly assisted by video you may have on your camera system! Cameras down the block often catch the perps putting on hoodies, etc. and automobile, so they are very important. License plate reader cameras are especially so. While police often canvas area for such video, the camera registry aids in the efficiency of the process, so please consider registering your cameras at:
oaklandnet.com/government/o/OPD/s/cameraregistry
AREA CRIME MAP April turned out to be even more calm than March, after a crime spurt during the first few months of 2017. These incidents are often gang related according to the OPD and several arrests have been made in recent months. This is not to say we should relax on vigilence. See the PARKING OUTSIDE tips below or on our website.
Check out the crime map from April below. CLICK on map or link below for interactive version.
The BEST way to view this is interactively via the CrimeMapper link: http://www.crimemapping.com/Share/URNA If you pick an address close to the center of URNA coverage map (e.g. 77 Clarewood Ln is good), you can see crime in the whole area when you don't limit to the 1 mile radius as shown above...
***FACTOID: THERE ARE OVER 1500 homes in URNA coverage area. Our patrols benefit ALL of them. We could add day and night patrols OR double our patrol cars if only 10% of you participate! We're working hard for you! Please take part in the collective safety of our neighborhood! -->OUR PATROLS are there to protect the community, not just individual houses!
See the LOWER MEMBER RATES below and JOIN URNA now! Our patrols augment the security of our area, even if you have a personal patrol service.
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