Here’s a fun factoid in advance of tonight’s vote by Oakland’s City Council on whether to hire former NYPD and Los Angeles top cop William Bratton as a crime consultant. Matthew Artz at the Merc’s Oakland Tribune edition says that six years ago when the city paid William Andrews and Patrick Harnett—consultants who just happen to be on the team Bratton has put together—for crime-fighting advice, the city ignored it. An excerpt:
The plan called for dividing Oakland into five neighborhood policing zones to further community policing and increase accountability among newly empowered district captains. It also urged the city to hire police technicians to deal with mundane jobs like burglary calls so officers could do more crime-fighting.
Six years later, the City Council is finally scheduled to vote on adding the technicians and Chief Howard Jordan is moving ahead with the police district plan. His declared support for five police districts last month came on the same day that the city announced the proposed contract for Bratton, Harnett and Andrews.
