Aug 28: Why don't the police come when we call 911?

Having recently moved into the Melrose Community, after visiting for the last 6+ months, I’ve witnessed more events than usual regarding gunfire and calling 911 for help.

Recently a gun battle type event happened and I called 911 twice as the shots surrounded my house on 3 of 4 sides. I was very scared and called family members just in case. I was very surprised no police ever came by or contacted me or any of my neighbors from what I can tell.

I posted the event on Nextdoor and continued the conversation the next day with quite a few neighbors who have stories of their own about 911 calls going unanswered for serious events.

Rather than accepting a general impression that OPD doesn’t come to Melrose for 911 calls, I did some research in my new role as Chair of Melrose Community Council and found that through our OPD Liaison, Araina Richards, we can request OPD come to our monthly meetings and explain their process to help us become clear on how things work today and what may be possible moving forward.

Thanks to Araina’s facilitation I’m happy to confirm Dispatcher Nicole Friend and Captain A. Mendoza, who are representatives from Oakland Police Department, will attend Aug. 28 Council Meeting so we can hear how their process works and be able to ask questions about possible improvements in this collaborative setting.

That said, I invite all Melrose, and surrounding community members, to join us Aug. 28, Wednesday night from 7:00-8:30pm at Horace Mann Elementary to meet our new Police Captain for 27x & y and a representative from 911 Dispatch.

The spirit of this meeting is to introduce ourselves, listen to OPD, share our perspectives, and aim to find common ground to address the concerns we have and to build stronger relationships between OPD and our communities.

This is our standard, monthly, agenda with scheduled speakers or Action Committee topic discussions:

6:30-7:00pm catch up with neighbors
7:00-7:05pm call to order & review agenda for the night

+ Safety: Why don't the police come when we call 911?

This is a meant to be an open dialog between community members and local Oakland Police Departments (c/o Eastmont PD) to understand how Dispatch answers calls and how they choose which ones to respond to.

Come meet our new area Police Captain and a representative from Oakland Police 911 Dispatch to hear how their process works and be able to ask questions about possible improvements in this collaborative setting.

7:05-7:20pm Municipal check in (District Council Reps go first, at 5 minutes each then Oakland Police will provide updates leading to the Featured Speakers session)

7:20-7:30pm Featured Speaker(s)

+ Eastmont PD & Dispatch - an overview of 911 response protocols

+ Bond Street Residents: A solution for the homeless encampment on Bond Street, and a request for your consideration and contributions.

7:30-7:45pm Join Action Committees for Break Out Sessions
7:45-8:15pm Action Committees share needs with Members
8:15-8:30pm next steps & say goodnight