APTP Statement in response to Mayor Thao Adding More License Plate Readers: A Complete Waste of Money
Oakland, CA: On Tuesday, the Mayor of Oakland presented her first annual state of the city address to the people of Oakland. To say the least, we are organizationally disheartened but not surprised.
For 14 years, the Anti Police-Terror Project has been studying, developing, implementing and training communities across the country on data-driven public safety alternatives that address root causes, interrupt the violence of policing and that increasingly have the promise of results. We have communicated these alternatives, backed with data and reports to the Mayor and City Council for years.
We are dismayed to see the willful dismissal of policies and practices that could actually achieve a safe, healthy and thriving “One Oakland.”
In particular, we were deeply disturbed to see the Mayor disregard the privacy of Oakland residents by supporting the establishment of a system of mounted Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) across the City of Oakland.
While the opposition wants to blame “progressive policies” for the current state of Oakland, the truth is (and the data proves) that those policies never became a reality. We are in the conditions we are in because of the continued refusal of those entrusted to make these critical choices to do what the data says and stop investing in the failed status quo of policing and prisons.
We cannot incarcerate our way out of trauma, homelessness, joblessness, miseducation and gentrification. And a year from now, after we have wasted millions of dollars on ineffective and nonsensical automated license plate readers, additional foot patrols, and the resulting lawsuits from increased police violence, we will be sure to remind Mayor Thao and those who support these policies that it didn’t have to be this way.
This knee jerk reaction to the increased robberies and burglaries in Oakland will not change the current situation. And we are concerned that at least part of the decisions being made are a reaction to a growing chorus of neo-liberal, conservative voices who seek to transform Oakland into the gentrified Oakland dream of Jerry Brown of long ago, carried on with great harm to Black and Brown Oaklanders by the Libby Schaaf administration.
How do we know the situation will not change? Because we have been promoting the same failed policies for decades. Since 2019, we have approved additional cop academies, increased the budget of the Oakland Police Department annually by tens of millions of dollars, and completely walked away from the central tenets of reimagining public safety.
We acknowledge the pressing need for effective solutions to improve public safety. However, we demand evidence-based policymaking. If we engage in a thorough examination of the effectiveness of ALPRs on lampposts, it is clear these technologies are wholly ineffective at decreasing violence, and instead will only serve as surveillance tools in communities already impacted by various forms of state sanctioned surveilling, racial profiling and mass incarceration. Further, the money we spend on them is money we could be spending on housing for the unhoused and other public safety solutions that actually work.
For years, Oakland police have utilized ALPRs in their vehicles, collecting data without specific investigative purposes. The recent deactivation of the entire ALPR network and a subsequent report reveal their minimal contribution to criminal investigations and prove their ineffectiveness. The Automated License Plate Reader 2022 Annual Report, published in June 2023, reads, “OPD was unable to find any definitive cases where our ALPR helped on an active investigation for 2022.”
Nothing proposed yesterday by the Mayor on public safety was new, little-to-none of it will work, and Black and Brown people will continue to suffer the most — both from what is happening on the streets, and from the militarized response kicked into overdrive with yesterday’s remarks.
Cat Brooks, Executive Director - Anti Police-Terror Project
James Burch, Deputy Director - Anti Police-Terror Project
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