Letter From Mayor Dellums Regarding COPS Funding

August 5, 2009


Dear Oakland workers, residents, and partners:

I have the great privilege to notify you about the City’s recent receipt of $19.747 million from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This grant award will fund 41 police officers for the next three years and constitutes the largest grant award given in the nation. It has been my great honor to serve as Oakland’s champion to the White House and federal agency officials in articulating our collective efforts to reduce crime through holistic and comprehensive public safety strategies. Oakland’s community policing model is a key centerpiece of our approach.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the hard-working City staff who worked tirelessly on the COPS grant application and follow-up efforts. Gilbert Garcia and Candice Jessie from the Oakland Police Department worked under the supervision of Acting Chief Howard Jordan to put together a stellar application. Margaretta Lin from my office worked under the supervision of City Administrator Dan Lindheim to write a proposal narrative that connected our community policing model with our other model city initiatives. Many thanks to the private foundation funders who are funding her work for the City as part of our Office of Public Private Partnership’s efforts. The City’s successful stimulus efforts result from the public private partnerships that we have developed over time. We greatly appreciate the collaboration with the City Council and their staff on the City’s stimulus efforts. In particular, Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan was very helpful in volunteering to collect community support letters for the City’s application.

Some noteworthy data points about the City’s COPS grant include the following:

· The City of Oakland’s grant of $19,747,117 was the largest awarded in the nation. Other cities that received large awards include San Francisco ($16,562,750) and Los Angeles ($16,285,650). California has 109 applications awarded.

· The grant scoring was based upon three factors: fiscal health, crime statistics, and community policing model. The City received a score of 100% on our grant application.

· The Department of Justice received 7,272 applications from law enforcement agencies requesting $8.3 billion to fund more than 39,000 officer positions. With $1 billion available, the Department funded 1,046 applications that will pay for 4,699 officers. They anticipated funding 24% of applications from large cities, the category that Oakland falls under.

· In light of the oversubscription for the COPS program, the Department of Justice decided to place a funding cap for the jurisdictions selected for an award which capped all funded agencies at no more than 5% of their current actual sworn force strength as reported in their application, up to a maximum of 50 officers. Oakland’s sworn workforce at the time of our COPS’ application was 814 officers, which gave us a funding cap of 41 officers.

The COPS grant will help us continue the effective public safety pathway that my administration has charted—investing in prevention, intervention, and enforcement strategies. When I took office in January 2007, I made a commitment to the Oakland community to prioritize public safety needs. Compared to this time last year, there has been a 15% reduction in part one crimes (violent and property crimes), and a 23% reduction in homicides. Along with the geographic realignment of police staffing, the development of problem-solving officers, and connecting OPD staff to prevention and intervention community outreach workers, having sufficient OPD officers has been key to our crime reduction efforts. While the COPS award is insufficient by itself to meet the City’s police staffing needs, I remain committed to working with you, the federal government, and other partners to achieve additional resources. I have been advocating with the White House and through the U.S. Conference of Mayors for additional funds to be allocated this fiscal year for the COPS program. Given the national need, the shovel-readiness of funding officers from an employment perspective, and the direct connections between public safety and economic revitalization, I believe that such action makes eminent sense for the nation’s economic recovery priorities.

I am greatly heartened by the City’s success with the COPS grant and hopeful that through our dedicated partnership efforts we will be celebrating many more successes to come.

Sincerely,



Ronald V. Dellums

Mayor