Oakland police union calls for Mayor Sheng Thao to resign ahead of recall vote
The Oakland Police Officers' Association in a Tuesday news conference urged Mayor Sheng Thao to resign immediately and allow others to vie for her post in the November election.
The embattled mayor, along with Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and other elected officials, are to blame for local crime that has "spiraled out of control" over Thao's two-year-long stewardship of the city, OPOA leadership said.
"Every day you are in office, Oakland is less safe," read a letter signed by police union president Huy Nguyen and three other union leaders. "Your administration has turned Oakland into an international embarrassment."
Nguyen said Thao's resignation should precede both the vote on her recall and the Friday deadline for Oakland mayoral candidates to file for the November election.
Nguyen also declined to name another individual the police union would endorse for Oakland mayor if Thao resigned before the filing deadline. Rather, Nguyen simply called for anyone but Thao to take the reins.
If Thao does not resign, Nguyen vowed during the news conference to support her recall.
"We're looking for people willing to steer the ship in the right direction," Nguyen said of the union's position.
The Oakland branch of the NAACP and former Oakland city councilmember Loren Taylor have also called for Thao's resignation.
During the news conference, OPOA vice president Timothy Dolan pointed to a surge in crime over the weekend, when he said nine people were shot in 30 hours.
After the news conference, Thao posted a video on the social media platform X rejecting OPOA's claims that her leadership had driven up crime in the city.
Public safety is my top priority, so let me lay out the facts about the progress we have made since I was sworn in last January. #OneOakland #OaklandLoveLife #Oakland pic.twitter.com/GfPbFhyftc
— Mayor Sheng Thao 盛桃 (@MayorShengThao) August 6, 2024
Thao said rates of homicide, rape, burglary, robbery, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft all decreased over the previous year.
However, OPOA said that fewer reports of property crimes in Oakland do not reflect a reduction in those crimes. The police union contended that residents' frustration with police understaffing has driven them to not report property crimes to the police, making property crime data unreliable.
Under her administration, Thao added that Oakland has had more officers on the street than it has had in more than three years.
"It's really unfortunate that the OPOA is obviously playing politics," Thao said in the video.
The OPOA's letter lamented the budget approved in July that funded 678 police officers—down from a previous allotment of 712 officers. The budget for 712 police officers, OPOA said in the letter, had already been slashed from previous funding for 803 officers.
Though previous budgets may have allowed for fewer officers, Anti Police-Terror Project co-founder Cat Brooks noted the city has continuously footed the bill for police officers' overtime. In 2023, Oakland's police personnel raked in approximately $49,200,000 in overtime, according to data from the state controller.
An avowed critic of Thao's public safety policies, Brooks still said the mayor should not be blamed for any increase in Oakland's violent crime. Rather, Brooks contended previous leadership left Oakland in a state of "disaster" and "crisis," and that it would take time for any new city leader to fix its problems.
"She deserves a chance to do her job," Brooks said.
Thao and her office did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding OPOA's call for her resignation.