CalMatters reports it's part of a larger, slowly unfolding effort to exert state influence on law enforcement in Oakland and other California cities as crime concerns rise during an election year.
The state intervention -- which includes extra deployments of CHP officers, National Guard lawyers , or both in Oakland, San Francisco, Bakersfield and Riverside -- plays well with some worried residents and business owners.
And it may help fend off right-wing critiques of California as a liberal dystopia. But it has drawn criticism from police accountability groups and privacy experts concerned about the effect on residents, especially communities of color.
As California's political pendulum swings back toward tough-on-crime policies, the governor has tasked CHP officers with cracking down on auto, retail and cargo theft in Bakersfield, and fentanyl dealing in San Francisco. Oakland, however, has drawn the bulk of the state attention.
The city's scandal-plagued police department already has operated under the oversight of a federal monitor for the past two decades. Violent crime rose by more than 20 percent in 2023, before dropping again in the first half of 2024, according to data from the police department and the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
