It sounds absolutely ridiculous to pay someone else to do what the police are getting paid to ostensibly do. It also further divides a community between protected and unprotected.
Perhaps someone that knows more about OPD could chime in:
0. Can't slackers be fired?
1. Is there a recruitment problem that constrains 0.?
2. Is leadership failing to motivate and/or inspire morale?
3. How many OPD regular officers live in Oakland? (I would wager it's very high or very low.)
Postscript: I love Oakland, both its gems and its warts. It's hard to find good music in the Bay Area, especially live blues.
I don't know the specifics of shift truancy, it's possible that management is making impossible demands- but OPD has a plummeting budget to work with, and has been flunking out of federal receivership for years. Leadership regularly gets booted for that offense.
> It's hard to find good music in the Bay Area, especially live blues.
Surely you've missed finding out about JJ's…or you live on the opposite side of the bay from them.
Long, long ago, in a valley far, far away, people would drive from Berkeley to Sunnyvale (or the opposite trip) to meet their friends for dinner. (Midweek, even!) Traffic wasn't nearly as bad then.
Perhaps someone that knows more about OPD could chime in:
0. Can't slackers be fired?
1. Is there a recruitment problem that constrains 0.?
2. Is leadership failing to motivate and/or inspire morale?
3. How many OPD regular officers live in Oakland? (I would wager it's very high or very low.)
Postscript: I love Oakland, both its gems and its warts. It's hard to find good music in the Bay Area, especially live blues.