Businesses in downtown Oakland are hiring private security for employees and asking employees to stay inside as crime in the city worsens, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Blue Shield, a health care provider that moved its headquarters to Oakland in 2019, is offering employees security guards and ride-hail services due to the rise in crime in Oakland, according to the Chronicle. Kaiser Permanente, a healthcare giant, is asking employees to stay in their buildings, according to the Chronicle. (RELATED: Drug Overdose Deaths Skyrocket To All-Time High In San Francisco)
“In response to the current crime environment affecting all businesses and the entire community of Oakland, as well as other communities across the country, we continue to provide guidance to keep employees as safe as possible,” Kaiser Permanente said.
Violent crime in Oakland spiked 21% from 2022 to 2023, according to Oakland crime statistics. Robberies rose 38%, burglaries increased 23% and the city recorded 120 homicides.
Kaiser Permanente told workers who were not from the city to not hold meetings in downtown Oakland in a December memo, according to KTVU.
Officials in Mayor Sheng Thao’s office said Kaiser is “a valued employer and partner in addressing community safety,” and said the city assigned police officers and safety ambassadors to districts surrounding Kaiser’s location, according to the Chronicle.
Crime spiked in Oakland after the election of left-wing lawyer Pamela Price as the district attorney. Price’s softness on criminals has drawn criticism from the Oakland NAACP. “Our District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people who … commit life threatening serious crimes and the proliferation of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals,” the Oakland NAACP wrote in a letter. In July, the Oakland NAACP called for a state of emergency to be declared in the city due to rampant crime.
Price reduced charges for the killers of toddler Jasper Wu. And a black man found guilty of deliberately setting two Asian students on fire with a blowtorch — they survived — will face no jail time as part of a plea deal with Price. Internal emails last April revealed that Price was searching for a way to pursue “non-carceral” punishments for those who committed violence against the Asian community, according to ABC 7 News.
