The views expressed in our Letters column do not necessarily reflect the views of Oakland Report or its contributing authors. Letters may be edited for clarity, length, and conciseness.
Global shipping access creates more crime opportunity for stolen goods?
Re: Oakland has the #1 property crime rate in America, Aug. 2
You did it again!! I’m going to have to read this again to digest the data. I have always wondered if transportation hubs — port cities and cities with big cargo airports — have higher property crime because it’s so easy to supply international markets with stolen goods.
There is a great episode of Trafficked that focused on high end cars being stolen in the eastern US and sold in West Africa. It’s a fascinating episode. Do we sense that the high property crime is part of an organized effort (stolen yoga pants ending up on Amazon) or is it a sense of desperation (people who have been shut out by the system seeking to survive)?
Perhaps both?
I do have a hypothesis for a 100% effective solution to preventing car theft. Sell your car. Ride the bus.
At the end of the day, I do take encouragement in having the right leadership at OPD. Chief Beere was an excellent choice. These types of challenges do not have simple or immediate solutions. I’m swimming out of my lane with crime, but it’s fascinating. I do believe there is a strong connection to global transportation though.
Josh Rowan
Oakland
Oakland mayor Barbara Lee claimed that “crime rates are coming down in all categories” in a television interview on May 20, 2026. (Video sources: Instagram @mayorbarbaralee; KTVU. Montage by Oakland Report)
People don’t bother to report property crime
Re: Oakland still has the #1 property crime rate in America, Aug. 15
No one who actually lives in Oakland will believe any crime statistics. Why? Because they know that since OPD admits they don’t investigate or act on residential property crime, people don’t bother to report it.
Victor Gold
Oakland
Oakland’s police staffing continues to be its Achilles heel
Re: Oakland still has the #1 property crime rate in America, Aug. 15
Another great analysis by Oakland Report. Clearly, Oakland police assign priorities to certain crimes, hence the abysmal recovery rate for stolen cars.
Police staffing continues to be Oakland’s Achilles heel, but closely following is the use of technology as a force multiplier. There are many tools available to enhance the police department’s abilities to police but due to budget — or more likely anti-police rhetoric — they’re unable to institute these tools. Recently, Oakland’s rogue Privacy Advisory Commission also has been a blocking entity.
That being said, there’s a balance to policing and privacy rights, and one need not look far to see San Francisco’s successes with the implementation of technology and ‘real time’ crime centers.
If Oakland truly wants economic recovery, its political leaders must evaluate and implement technologies that make Oakland not only safer but more economically viable. I have my doubts that our current elected leadership has the political courage to do what is simply right for OPD and the citizens of our beloved city.
A. Cohen
Oakland
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Crime is not evenly distributed across the city
Re: Oakland still has the #1 property crime rate in America, Aug. 15
Oakland’s overall crime statistics don’t necessarily equate to the risk faced by residents of some neighborhoods — for example, Temescal — because crime is not evenly distributed across the city.
The citywide crime numbers are real, but they are averages across a city with very different crime environments. Oakland Report’s analysis found Oakland’s violent crime rate was extraordinarily high compared with the other cities you examined. But that doesn’t mean that a typical Temescal residential block experiences anything remotely like those rates.
Temescal is in a distinctly different part of the crime map. OPD puts Temescal, Rockridge, Piedmont Avenue, and Uptown in Police Area 2. Whereas historically, crime has been most pronounced in parts of East Oakland, Fruitvale, Downtown, West Oakland, and around major commercial corridors.
Oakland Report’s analysis of the 2023 crime wave identified three particularly intense areas: Downtown, Fruitvale south of Foothill, and East Oakland around International Boulevard between 82nd and 98th.
It also noted that many of the most conspicuous property crimes were concentrated around commercial areas rather than residential neighborhoods.
Read this related article from 2024:
A stolen car parked on the street is very consistent with Oakland’s property crime problem, but it doesn’t mean every neighborhood has the same exposure to violent crime as the areas generating the city’s worst statistics.
The really striking part of the data is how much crime has fallen overall. As of June 7, 2026, violent crime was down 18% from the same point in 2025; burglary was down 33%, auto theft 37%, and carjacking 30%.
One can live for years in a part of Oakland that is substantially less exposed to the city’s most serious crime, while still being exposed to some of the city’s pervasive property crime.
The distinction between “Oakland has an extremely high crime rate” and “my particular Oakland neighborhood is dangerous” is a very important one. The former can be true without the latter being true.
Bonnie S.
Oakland
Bonnie, thank you for your comments, and for reading Oakland Report.
You’re correct that crime in Oakland varies significantly by neighborhood. Statistically speaking, the Temescal district is far less impacted by crime than, say, the Hegenberger corridor in East Oakland. But even within Temescal, crime varies from block to block.
Furthermore, the city’s understaffed police department results in very low crime clearance rates citywide, which affects every Oakland resident regardless of their neighborhood.
At the end of the day, we are all Oaklanders who share the same public resources and government, at least in theory.
Oakland’s crime issues do not have to be this way. The FBI data shows that other cities with similar characteristics do not have the same intensity of crime problems as Oakland has. There’s something unique about Oakland’s approach to crime.
Thank you again for your comments, which have inspired us to look at the data from a geographic perspective within Oakland itself.
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A simple solution to the federal monitor’s perverse incentive — but the judge ignored it
Re: Oakland police could exit federal oversight soon. What comes after?, Aug. 18
Judge Orrick’s opinion on ending federal oversight of OPD is decisive because of his power, but it is a shabby opinion nonetheless.
The simple solution to federal monitor Robert Warshaw’s incentive to keep finding one more unfulfilled “task” would have been to limit the monitor’s contract to two years. The idea floated around for years, but Orrick ignored it.
The city’s latest efforts might be a tactic to butter him up for a month or so, but no more.
Charles Pine
Oakland
OUSD’s gross mismanagement and favoritism
Re: Oakland Unified spent over $28,000 per student — more than any nearby district, Aug. 7
Thanks for your excellent reporting. I have volunteered in OUSD schools over many years and have observed gross mismanagement, favoritism, and generally sloppy management.
It’s a real tragedy.
I’m curious about where charter schools fit into this picture. Are they included in this data? What about per pupil costs? Are they the same as OUSD?
Given the high percentage of children in charter schools in Oakland, a breakout of these pupils would be useful. Can we compare OUSD with charter school testing reports?
Susan S.
Oakland
Voters keep voting the same way
Re: Six schools closed in Oakland in 2026. All were charter schools, Aug. 20
Charter schools in Oakland (and most everywhere else) are not unionized. Regular Oakland school teachers are all union members. Like all other elected officials in Oakland and throughout most of California, the OUSD board first takes care of its public sector unions.
The voters keep voting the same way. It’s not like the candidates or unions are hiding anything — both trumpet their mutual affiliation, and, pretty much throughout California, that relationship reliably delivers votes.
@Circleglider
via Substack
Kaplan and Fife are notably absent from Sheng Thao trial witness list
Re: Flashback: There’s something about Rebecca, Aug. 4
City council passed legislation allowing the city of Oakland to pay the legal fees of staff and elected officials accused of crimes.
Council members Rebecca Kaplan and Carroll Fife, who both had extensive dealings with former mayor Sheng Thao — especially around Evolutionary Homes — are notably absent from the witness list. That could mean they are targets instead.
Months ago, I reported on Gotham Oakland that the FBI raided Kaplan’s home. Kaplan has never publicly denied that, and no media outlet seems willing to ask serious questions about it.
She’s now in a no-show city job where taxpayers could end up footing her legal bills if charges are eventually filed.
Seneca Scott
Oakland
Sadly laughable: Kaplan was hired under the current mayor
Re: Flashback: There’s something about Rebecca, Aug. 4
I thought the same when I saw the witness list given Kaplan’s incontrovertible connections with that company and Sheng Thao as well. It’s sadly laughable that she’s in a well-paid position to curb illegal dumping at a time I see more of it than ever — especially since she was given this position under our current mayor.
Kaplan and Lee are examples of cronyism over competency. I see that every day — not only with dumping, but the countless potholes I need to maneuver, along with all the glaring lack of governance in this city.
Edward L.
Oakland
Big of you to answer some overly sensitive feelings
Re: Rough cut: our video montage missed the mark, Jul. 31
Nothing wrong with the truth, or how you showed it — the video was from council member Janani Ramachandran’s own social media page. Big of you to answer some overly sensitive people’s “feelings,” and honestly try to address that.
Shelley Albar
Oakland
Doesn’t get the whole nightclub act / council member thing
Re: Rough cut: our video montage missed the mark, Jul. 31
While it appeared to be a mistake or miscalculation, I thought the video was a brilliant juxtaposition — but maybe that’s because I don’t get the whole nightclub act / serious council member thing. That was as good an explanation as any.
Pamela Drake
Oakland
Pamela, thank you for your message, and for reading Oakland Report. We appreciate the feedback about the video — both pro and con. We’re working on an article examining council member Ramachandran’s use of her elected position to promote her private interests, and we may include a revised version of the video.
Takes strong issue with the video, offers suggestions to improve it
Re: Rough cut: our video montage missed the mark, Jul. 31
I’ve been reading many articles from Oakland Report for many months now and have been really enjoying your coverage, and sharing it on communities like Reddit. I regularly share your article on GPS dispatch on Oakland police department vehicles, and won’t stop until that policy is changed. Your article brought that problem to my attention.
But I take strong issue with the edited video in your open letter. I understand it was Oakland Report that made that sensationalist video edit.
The original video on Instagram did NOT include the singing. Yes, the council member may be promoting her own music career on her Instagram page that covers council business, and this should be called out.
But the edit needs to properly represent the fact that it’s not a single video but multiple videos. On a Reddit thread, many people thought she added a promo for her own singing career to the end of the video, even the moderator of that community.
Such sensationalist edits actually makes me lose faith in Oakland Report’s unbiased reporting. It’s “rage bait” rather than informing and calling things that are wrong (such as mixing singing career and council business) in a more factual, unbiased way.
I hope you take this feedback and adopt it in future reporting. Even updating the video to be less biased by perhaps putting more gaps between each segment and not overlapping them. Maybe include the Instagram video URL or post date as a source text at the bottom of the video, to make it more clear they’re different videos.
@Shazmosushi
via email
Thank you, all, for writing to us, and for reading Oakland Report.
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