Crime is falling in Oakland, but local business owners feel not much has changed

Burglaries and other crime have been a big concern in Oakland, so crime being down this year is welcome news. City leaders said the statistics are moving in the right direction, but some local business owners say they aren’t seeing the results just yet.

“The break-ins were a couple months ago. They were pretty recent,” said Jonathan Perez.

Perez said they’re lucky no one was inside Guadalajara Restaurant in the Fruitvale when it was broken into twice since the beginning of the year.

“I feel like it’s happened so regularly over time that we’re not scared of it as much. We kind of expect it somehow,” said Perez.

According to new data released by the Oakland Police Department, violent crime rates are down in the first part of the year. The numbers show crime is down 33% overall, burglary is down 50%, as well as theft. Homicides saw a 17% drop.

The only category that went up is robbery.

City leaders said it’s all thanks to re-implementing the Cease-Fire program.

“As we continue to move the strategy along, it not only historically has reduced homicides and shootings, but it has also led to pretty significant reductions in all crimes,” said Dr. Holly Joshi.

She leads they city’s office of Violence Prevention and has been working to revive the Cease Fire program. It was hugely popular in the early 2000s during the height of gang violence in Oakland.

It’s a multi-pronged approach to identify those most likely to commit violent crimes, then bring in community leaders to talk with those at high-risk of violence reduce the possibility of retaliatory shootings and other serious crimes.

“The folks that are at the center of gun violence in the city are also heavily involved in other crimes including robberies, including burglaries, including car break-ins,” said Joshi.

While crime rates have come down on paper since the beginning of the year, many like Jonathan said they don’t really feel that much safer but hope things will continue to move in the right direction.

“If there’s no hope, then what are we doing? I just hope things do get better, and I like to keep a positive attitude, always,” said Perez.

Another part of the strategy is to continue some of the violence interruption programs currently happening at the Oakland Police Department.

Katie Nielsen

Katie Nielsen is an award-winning reporter who has spent more than 10 years sharing people’s stories. She joined KPIX in the summer of 2017, and just a few months later, found herself covering the Wine Country Wildfires.