For eight months, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has said the city’s top priority was: reducing violent crime by concentrating on roughly 100 blocks where 90 percent of shootings and homicides have occurred, says the San Francisco Chronicle. She announced a plan to infuse those 100 blocks with police and other city services in October, saying it already was showing results.
Now, the mayor’s chief of staff says Quan’s assertion that 90 percent of the shootings and homicides have occurred over the past two years on 100 blocks was incorrect. Anne Campbell Washington, said that in reality, Quan’s plan has always focused on 10 neighborhoods that comprise between 10 and 20 blocks apiece. The city’s most recent analysis of those 100 to 200 blocks showed they accounted for 58 percent of the city’s homicides and 42 percent of the shootings in 2010 and 2011. In an interview Thursday, Campbell Washington said she does not know where the 90 percent characterization that Quan has repeatedly cited came from. The disclosure that the mayor’s 90 percent assertion was wrong comes amid growing criticism over her crime plan and as violent crime is increasing in the city. Data show that violent crime is up in Oakland by 21 percent this year.