Speaking at a press conference at OPD headquarters Tuesday morning, Beere said additional officers will be stationed around Lake Merritt, the Uptown and downtown commercial corridor along Broadway, and the 18th Street and Telegraph Avenue area. OPD's Special Operations Division will also be deployed citywide, including the ARGUS helicopter, traffic enforcement unit, special weapons and tactics team, and undercover officers.
At a press conference today, the Oakland Police Department provided fresh details on a Nov. 12 shooting at Skyline High School. The incident sent the school into lockdown for the third time this school year. OPD Assistant Chief James Beere said that the 15-year-old shooting victim is recovering and "in good spirits." He said officers got to the campus within two minutes and were able to provide life-saving medical assistance to him until paramedics arrived.
Armstrong sued Oakland last year, alleging the city and then-Mayor Sheng Thao fired him in February 2023 in retaliation for speaking out against Robert Warshaw, the federal monitor who oversees the police department. Armstrong's lawsuit also accused Thao of violating his First Amendment rights. A federal judge dismissed Armstrong's First Amendment claims last November and sent the remainder of the claims to state court to decide whether the city's leaders violated labor laws.
Being a police chief in a major city in the United States today is half political and half administrative. They set the policies of the department. They coordinate with the city administration, the mayor, the council, and other elected officials. They pick leadership, like the deputy chiefs and the captains. And they manage big picture stuff, like the budget, personnel, and rules.
For reasons that he did not share publicly, Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell is leaving his post after less than a year and a half on the job, which leaves Oakland once again in search of a new police chief. The city of Oakland has had quite a few chiefs leading its police department in the last two decades. They don't tend to last long in the job on average, about two years, with 12 different people holding the post since 2000.
At a police commission meeting last month, leaders warned this would be the necessary course of action. "We have to be able to answer 911 calls. That's the bare minimum. Everything else is a luxury. We don't like it. I'll tell you right now, the chief is not happy that he has to do it. We have to do this," said Deputy Chief Lisa Ausmus.
A preliminary 3.4-magnitude earthquake struck this morning at 8:06 am, centered under the Pacific about 50 miles southwest of Eureka. This follows a 3.0M quake on the San Andreas Fault earlier this week, centered near Cupertino.
