OPD Chief Holds His Last Public Meeting

Oakland's outgoing Police Chief Wayne Tucker met with the public for one last time on Wednesday night. Chief Tucker called his tenure as Oakland's top cop a "high water mark" in his career.

He touted his achievements saying he helped boost the department ranks to 829 officers and said crime has gone down under his watch. "Safe to say as we stand here today," he told participants in the Neighborhood Crime Watch program, "We're in the best shape we've been in the last four years."

But 83-year-old Josephine Lee said she's seen little progress in her North Oakland community where neighbors are combatting drugs and prostitution. "We've got three shifts working {of prostitutes} on San Pablo Avenue," said Lee. "The morning shift, the afternoon shift and the night shift going home. I mean this is ridiculous."

And Susan Lockward says her Montclair neighborhood became victimized by a series of home invasions under Chief Tucker's watch.

Lockward says it was the neighborhood watch program that helped authorities catch the alleged suspects behind the summer and fall burglaries. " One of the things people are often frustrated with up in the hills is that we don't have a large police presence," said Lockward.

Chief Tucker conceded, the city is woefully inadequate in terms of responding to property crimes. "We just don't have staff to do those kinds of things," he said.

And he said in addition to more officers, the department needs to beef up the investigative unit and adopt a team approach to homicides.

But Josephine Lee says the first thing she'd like to see changed is how the department protects and serves the city. "I hope the new chief is willing to embrace community policing to put our problem solving officers in our areas and let them stay there long enough to know the criminals and know the problems of the area."

Saturday is scheduled to be Chief Tucker's last day on the job.

Assistant Chief Howard Jordan is expected to take over on an interim basis.