Police Chief Wayne Tucker defended the department's work to fight crime amid a flurry of questions and criticisms from City Council members in Oakland this week who said their constituents are fed up with the city's crime rate.

Tucker's presentation of the department's crime-fighting plans came after Deputy Chief David Kozicki made the same presentation to the council's Public Safety Committee on April 22. At one point in the meeting, Kozicki drew a sharp response from Councilwoman Patricia Kernighan who said the police department "sure better try" to arrest its way out of Oakland's crime problem. Tuesday's meeting proved even more contentious.

"If we talk about what's occurring in the department, yes, there have been a lot of successes," Tucker said at one point, before adding, "I think it's safe to say we've got a number of restrictions we're looking at."

There have been three major public-safety developments since Jan. 1. Police moved to a new geographic-based policing model. The council approved Mayor Ron Dellums' plan to spend $7.7 million to recruit and train more officers. And a new contract with the Oakland Police Officers Association gives Tucker more authority over when and where to deploy officers.

But crime is not down. Serious crime has crept up 4 percent compared with this point last year, while homicides have jumped 39 percent. Robbery is up 3 percent, while rape is down 11 percent and burglary down 2 percent.

Councilwoman

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Jane Brunner said she supports the geographic policing model, as well as the $7.7 million for recruiting and the new contract, but pushed Tucker to articulate a clearer philosophy on what, exactly, the department intends to do in coming months and years to lower crime.

"Other cities are safer," she said. "New York is safer. Los Angeles is safer. Oakland is considered the fourth most dangerous city (in the country)."

Brunner said the chief needs to boil down the hundreds of ideas in the 56-page report he presented into a few clear goals with guidelines and timelines on how the goals' success or failure will be measured.

"Everyone and their brother is coming up with their own plan," she said. "We can all study this and come up with our own plan, but we're not the expert, chief — you are."

Councilwoman Desley Brooks took a different angle, saying the report "starts a conversation" to help the department tackle the city's challenges.

"Let me say, if there's one place the department's falling down, it's in not talking about our successes," she said.

Tucker thanked Brooks. As for questions from Brunner and numerous other council members, he said he planned to return to the council chamber soon with more specific information on policing initiatives in each of the three geographic areas created by the new deployment model.

The restrictions he spoke about include the lack of a system to provide the department with real-time crime data as well as inability to move some officers where they are most needed.

Tucker said roughly 130 officers are "not movable in one form or another." Those 130 include officers assigned exclusively to redevelopment areas, Measure Y-mandated problem-solving officers and crime-reduction teams, and 28 or so officers assigned to the Internal Affairs Division.

The concentration of officers in Internal Affairs is due largely to the city's Settlement Agreement over the Riders misconduct scandal that directed police to establish rules to examine complaints in a timely manner. The department is working with a team of monitors to reduce the number of officers in Internal Affairs, Tucker said.

Attorney John Burris, who represented the plaintiffs in the Riders case, said he is not against the idea of reducing the number of sworn officers working in Internal Affairs as long as the complaints are dealt with in a way that meets the terms of the settlement.

"In terms of the agreement, there's nothing about the agreement that suggests that constitutional rights and good policing are in conflict," Burris said. "They're just not. We're not an impediment to good policing."

Tucker, meantime, said he believes council members offering suggestions and criticisms on policing tactics had good intentions, but did acknowledge it can be difficult to juggle so many ideas and requests.

Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, however, said with the department at its highest staffing level in years — about 750 officers — and crime remaining high, it makes sense for the council to poke and prod about what's happening.

"The only reason why we are even participating in this discussion is because it's not working," he said, adding, "We have more cops, we have more resources, we have more crime, we have fewer arrests. None of this clicks."

Reach Kelly Rayburn at 510-208-6435 or krayburn@bayareanewsgroup.com.