Oakland Police-Community Cooperation Project - Project Report

• NCJ Number: 70103
• Author(s): C R Gain
• Date Published: 1971
• Length: 18 pages
• Grant Number(s): 70-DF-118
• Sponsoring Agency: California Council on Criminal Justice; US Dept of Justice; US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: Oakland Police Dept
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

As a result of the 1970 Oakland Police-Community Cooperation Project in Oakland, Calif. many citizens were included in crime prevention, and decrease in some crimes was noted.

Abstract

A significant increase (330 percent) in crime was noted in Oakland during the period between 1960 and 1969. Several programs have been instituted since 1969 by the Oakland Police Department to develop the community cooperation in crime prevention and detection, but the lack of funds has prevented their continuation. However, in July 1970 a Federal grant made it possible to initiate a new program--Oakland Police-Community Cooperation Project, which lasted till March 1971. Special emphasis was given to the prevention of residential and commercial burglary and auto theft. The project took three forms: Home Alert, Merchants' Alert, and Radio Alert. Home Alert consisted of a monthly newsletter and meetings that were attended by 10,500 citizens and featured police officers explaining simple crime preventive techniques such as removal of ignition keys from cars. The Merchants' Alert, using similar meetings and newsletters, was joined by 1,000 business owners, and disseminated preventive techniques against shoplifting, check passers, burglaries and robberies. The Radio Alert included 90 companies operating radio equipped vehicles whose drivers report unusual or criminal incidents to their company dispatchers for relay to the police. As a result of the project, 7.4 percent less crime was reported in 1970 than in 1969. Auto theft dropped by 19 percent, robbery by 3 percent, and burglary by almost 3 percent, and residential burglary decreased by nearly 2 percent. Despite subsequent crime rate increases, the project was an unquestionable success making the majority of citizens aware of crime prevention needs and techniques and developing citizen-police cooperation. Description of previous crime prevention programs in Oakland, Ca. and the bibliography of brochures and pamphlets which were distributed (with slides) in both English and Spanish are included.