Education - Public Safety- updated 11-1-06
Helpful Hints Regarding Personal Safety
Posted by: "Meeks, James" jmeeks@oaklandnet.com ninobassfunk
Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:56 pm (PST)

One of the best ways to prevent vandalism and theft is to be very
observant of your surroundings at all times. Many people simply do
not think about being a victim, until it actually happens. If you
expect that it will happen, you will be more observant. If you see
persons that look suspicious in your neighborhood, I ask that you
call the non-emergency number, 777-3333, and stay on the line until
you speak with a dispatcher. Give the best description of the person
(s) and if there is a vehicle associated with the person try to get
the license number if it is safe to do so.

Protect your homes and vehicles by making them to become hard
targets. If you have a garage door opener, take it out after your
park your vehicle. If you can afford an alarm for your home invest in
a good one that has a monitoring system. Do not open your doors for
people you are not expecting or who are trying to sell you something.
Never tell someone on the phone that you live alone, always say you
will talk with your family first. If you are having work done on your
home make sure you know who is doing the work and asked for their
license and if they are state bonded.

Be smarter that the person who is trying to out smart you. Talk with
your children about being safe at school and about walking or riding
to and from school.

These are just some ideas to keep you safe. For more information
regarding personal safety please call the Neighborhood Services
Division of the Oakland Police Department at 510 238-6372, and
request a staff member come out and give you and your neighbors a
Self Protection Presentation.

Please stay safe.
Lt. Meeks

Education - Traffic
- updated 10-15-06
Peer to Peer Education

As the word spreads that racing and high speed driving is not cool, safe or acceptable, this peer to peer approach to tone down the situation could prove highly effective. For example, if you are a responsible m/c rider, go to the wall or the Royal coffee shop and talk about NOT racing through the residential areas. Share information about safe locations that do nort have a potentially lethal mix of peds, cyclist, cars and m/c.

While OPD can play a role in this, few of us ever volunteer to spend an evening listening to drivers education materials. However, outreach and peer-to-peer communications as above, can help educate people to teh risks and consquences, and we assume that few people out there really have death wishes for themselves or others. If you are that angry, better stay home watch movies, drink beer and write nasty blogs on the internet.


Traffic Calming Programs
The City of San Ramon seems to have a good program. I requested a few Traffic Calming Toolkits from them: http://www.ci.san-ramon.ca.us/transp/calming.htm.

Here's an excellent comprehensive traffic calming handbook from a FL county: http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/publicworks/traffic/resources/publications/residentialtrafficcalminghandbook.pdf

This is an outdated (1997), but very relevant article on traffic surveillance cameras in the Silicon Valley and the greater Bay Area: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/02.06.97/traffic-camera-9706.html It states, "In Oakland, 200 electronic devices are on line to catch speeders, generating 2,000 ticket a month. But Alameda County judges have thus far refused to issue warrants because they say there is no California law that permits tickets to be mailed to motorists." It would be good to know whether that still applies.

West Sacramento has a very reasonable step by step Residential Traffic Calming Program: http://www.cityofwestsacramento.org/cityhall/departments/comdev/Documents/Eng_Traffic.pdf This could serve as a model for the City of Oakland if there is none in place.

On this DOT website of various programs throughout the country, it says that Oakland has reported experiences with traffic calming, but does not have any traffic calming information on their Web sites (how about that!): http://www.ite.org/traffic/tcresources.htm

We may need to get a program established for the City through a resolution or ordinance! Here's an example: http://fnnc.org/traffic.html We could always get on the agenda of a City Council meeting and expose the City for lacking a traffic calming program (if that is the case) and get one established and get some funds allocated.

From email 8-07-2006 from CD