The Oakland Police Department’s Media Team published a news release earlier today regarding the reassignment of six Traffic Enforcement Officers to “patrol duties due to ongoing staffing challenges facing our department.”
Before deciding to reassign these officers, I conducted a careful and comprehensive review of our community safety needs, patrol officer availability, and current staffing levels. Based on this assessment, my executive team and I made the difficult decision to reassign these traffic officers to dedicated patrol assignments to ensure timely responses to 911 emergency calls and officers’ safety across the Oakland community.
Unfortunately, due to our current attrition rate of five to six officers per month and the lack of funding to start a police academy for over a year (June 2024- July 2025), this will not be the last reassignment of specialized officers back to dedicated patrol duties in the coming weeks. This will prioritize officers’ assignments to department essential functions in patrol, criminal investigations, Ceasefire, and Internal Affairs.
The reassigned officers will be deployed to dedicated patrol beats across Oakland, assisting in filling vacancies currently covered through overtime, ensuring consistent and sufficient coverage.
OPD’s Executive Team remains committed to transparency and will continue to provide regular updates to elected officials, the Police Commission, community members, and department representatives.
These updates include current staffing levels and any necessary changes in officer deployment, based on real-time needs, during weekly and monthly meetings.
Finally, I want to address the unwarranted criticism levied at Mayor Barbara Lee regarding officer reassignments and deployment decisions made by OPD’s executive team during this unprecedented staffing crisis.
The decision to cancel and not fund any police academies last year was made before Mayor Lee took office. Since Mayor Lee assumed office, she has been a strong advocate for the police department, supporting the funding of five police academies as part of the City’s two-year budget cycle (FY 2025-2027).
Addressing the current staffing crisis will take time and require collaboration among all involved parties. To ensure the safety of our community and our officers, we must focus on retaining our current officers while recruiting new personnel. Chief Floyd Mitchell
