Put 88 officers back on the street: end the police hiring freeze

A series of increasingly disruptive “beach takeovers” in Alameda that culminated last Thursday with two people being shot near Crown Beach is shining a spotlight on the Alameda City Council's decision to keep police staffing levels well below the number of positions the city is authorized to fund.

The social media-fueled gatherings at Robert Crown Memorial State Beach have repeatedly generated complaints about fights, reckless driving, traffic gridlock, underage drinking, and other public safety concerns.

Last week's shooting marked the most serious incident yet and has renewed questions about whether Alameda has enough officers on the street to respond to quality-of-life and crime concerns.

For the second consecutive budget cycle, the City Council opted to fund fewer officers than the department's authorized staffing level.

While Alameda Police is authorized to have as many as 88 sworn officers, the city budgeted for 72 officers last year and plans to increase that figure to only 76 in the upcoming fiscal year.

No elected official has been more vocal on the issue than Councilmember Tony Daysog, who is running for mayor this fall.

Daysog has repeatedly argued that the city is sacrificing public safety by keeping officer staffing levels artificially low despite resident concerns about crime in Alameda.

“The issue is we're using our police force to create savings to pay for other things,” Daysog said during last year's budget discussions. “I think we should be making more effort to hire more police officers. I don't think people are clamoring for two more IT people.”