City Government

City Needs to Recruit More Oakland Residents as Police Officers, Says Kaplan

Published

12 years ago

September 3, 2014

Mayoral candidate and City Council President Pro-Tem Rebecca Kaplan today announced a proposal to require the city to hire more Oakland residents to work as officers at the Oakland Police Department.

“I’m calling for us to practice what we preach,” Kaplan said, speaking at a press conference Wednesday.

According to a report released from City Administrator officials, only 8 percent of sworn police officers are Oakland residents. According to Kaplan, the composition of the Oakland police force does not reflect numbers of Oakland resident who apply to join Oakland’s police force.

“There’s a mistaken belief that residents aren’t applying,” Kaplan said. Over1, 400 applications from Oakland residents were received for the past five police academies.

Though many applicants passed the written, physical, and oral evaluations, she said, only 32 Oakland residents were invited to join, according to police department data.

Furthermore, Kaplan says she has been told stories by residents who say they were rejected because of a low credit score or for past marijuana use, “which isn’t even an offense in Oakland.”

She says low credit disparities will exist in communities of color when check-cashing businesses are more accessible than banks. In addition, she said, white people are estimated to use marijuana as frequently as do people of color. But whites are less likely to have a record for marijuana use, she said.

If the council adopts a “formal policy similar to what [Oakland] has put on businesses contracted with the city,” she said, there would have to be more discussion as to why the 50 percent local hire isn’t being met.

Hiring residents of Oakland as officer has many benefits, she said. “Being knowledgeable of their city makes them more effective.”

Kaplan’s proposal is scheduled to go before the City Council’s Rules Committee on Sept. 18.

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Related Topics:City of Oakland Hire Oakland local hire policy Oakland Oakland Police Department Oakland residents OPD rebecca kaplan

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

3 days ago

July 5, 2026

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”