The Coalition for Police Accountability (CPA) is calling a virtual Town Hall on Saturday, April 29, 2023, to address concerns that the Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland (MACRO), an alternative to the armed response of police to emergency calls, is not meeting the goals set by the community.

This MACRO town hall is timely as a progress report is due to be made public within the next few weeks and CPA has called the community meeting to address structural problems needed to bring MACRO back to its original mission.

MACRO was envisioned by Oaklanders as an alternative community response for low-level 911 and emergency calls to relieve the Oakland Police Department (OPD) of calls that don’t require an armed response.

The pilot program designed by and for Oakland residents was intended to be an integral part of a public safety system that works for us. MACRO has been operating for over a year with many successful interventions and people have been pleased with their individual interactions with the program.

CPA, along with many other community and religious groups, was key in advocating for MACRO‘s adoption, nevertheless, in important aspects, MACRO is straying from its original purpose.

Significant work went into gathering ideas from the community, and now we feel obligated to see that the community’s vision is not lost. Our concerns have been raised repeatedly, but not addressed by the City Council or MACRO administration.

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CPA maintains that the community needs MACRO to be the effective alternative to 911 police response that Oaklanders envisioned and designed.

The questions to be answered include:

• Have our leaders forgotten the community’s vision for MACRO?
• Is there a plan for the parties involved, i.e, OPD, Oakland Fire Department, Oakland City Council, City administration, and the community to have regular collaboration to make MACRO successful?
• What training have MACRO employees received and what is the future training plan?
• Why are only six calls a day sent to MACRO from OPD dispatchers & have dispatchers been trained as to the criteria for appropriate calls?
• Is there an evaluation component to MACRO, and, if so, what is it and what are the criteria used?
• What is the role of the Community Advisory Board and is it transparent and available to community feedback?
• What is the hiring plan, and does it include residents from impacted communities?

Oaklanders support MACRO’s original community design.

Let’s review how to get it back on track with the support needed to survive and enhance the work. We are reaching out to all parties involved to address these concerns.

Please join the MACRO town hall Saturday, April 29, 2023, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Zoom!

For more information, please send an email to Oaklandcpainfo@gmail.com.

Register in advance: https://bit.ly/MACROtownhall

The steering committee for Coalition for Police Accountability is responsible for this commentary.

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