OAKLAND — Gov. Gavin Newsom reversed a decision to send extra prosecutors to help Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price crack down on crime in the East Bay, saying he was “disappointed” in Price’s “lack of enthusiasm” to partner up and receive additional aid.
The move marked an unexpected reversal of an offer made in February to send prosecutors from the California Department of Justice and the National Guard to the East Bay to help prosecute crimes and quell rates of theft and violent crime. It was modeled off a similar program in San Francisco that sent military attorneys to the city to help prosecute drug crimes.
“Rather than complaining about it, rather than lamenting about it, we’re going to be moving some of the prosecutors to the state of California, the attorney general’s office,” said Newsom at a press conference Thursday in West Oakland. In doing so, he expressed frustration at how the proposed partnership “was not enthusiastically embraced” by Price’s office.
“Yes, we’ve been disappointed,” Newsom said.
Newsom’s comments came as he announced yet another surge of California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland and the East Bay, following several similar boosts in staffing across the region since the beginning of the year. He said that highway patrol officers would increase their shifts in the city from 42 to 162 over the next four months.
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The decision to backtrack on the offer for additional prosecutors in the East Bay was outlined in a letter by Ann Patterson, a cabinet secretary, to the first-term district attorney suggesting that her office took too long to agree to a memorandum of understanding that would have paved the way for the prosecutors’ arrival.
“After several months of communications, however, including fulfilling requests from your office for résumés and interviews, you have not taken the initial steps of finalizing the memorandum of understanding or deputizing Cal Guard attorneys to work in your office,” Newsom said.
As a result, the letter added, those prosecutors will be reassigned to other posts whose focuses will be prosecuting state crimes in Alameda County, as well as drug crimes across Northern California.
The District Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to a request by this news organization for comment.
Check back for updates to this developing story.
