Oakland Restores Police Cadet Program to Address Staffing Crisis

The Oakland Police Department is bringing back its cadet training program in an effort to build a pipeline of officers and address a staffing crisis among its ranks.

The program, which fell victim to major budget cuts in 2023, will be reinstated thanks to $900,000 in funding from Kaiser Permanente and PG&E, Mayor Barbara Lee announced Wednesday.

She said the program, which provides mentorship, training and paid, part-time work to prepare college students for a career in public safety, has a 25-year record of success. Cadets graduate from the Police Academy at a higher rate than non-cadet recruits.

“One of the most effective ways to strengthen public safety is to ensure that the people entrusted with this responsibility come from Oakland and that they understand Oakland and are accountable to the communities that they serve,” Lee said at a news conference.

Oakland is among several Bay Area cities struggling to recruit and retain police officers as it faces a worsening staffing crisis.

OPD has 619 sworn officers, but the police union contends only 490 of them are actively working.

Huy Nguyen, president of the Oakland Police Officers Association, praised the refunding of the cadet program as a long-term strategy to grow the next generation of officers, but said city leaders need to do more now to beef up staffing.

“We are in a crisis and there is, concerningly, no end in sight unless the Mayor and Council take action to retain the small force of dedicated officers we have and to draw new recruits now to Oakland through improved pay, benefits, and working conditions,” he said in a statement.

The city budget currently allows for 687 officers. Interim Police Chief James Beere said he’s hopeful he can reach that staffing level and higher.

He said up to a dozen officers are planning to rejoin the force, and another Police Academy class will graduate in May.

Ultimately, the chief said he hopes to get staffing up to 877, as recommended by an independent firm in April, to drive down crime.

“We have a lot of work ahead, but I can tell you this is the best traction I’ve seen in a long time to get our numbers back up where they should be,” Beere said.

Lee said she hopes cadets will go on to not only serve the communities they come from, but also to spend their careers at OPD. She was joined by four officers who grew up in Oakland and came through the cadet program.

Two of those officers, Isaac and Isaiah Harris, are identical twin brothers who learned about the cadet program from their resource officer at Skyline High School.

“That was honestly the best and easiest transition from the civilian world into our profession,” Isaac Harris said. “The cadet program set us up perfectly. It helped us sharpen our multi-tasking skills, helped us become a leader … honestly, it was the perfect segue into the academy.”

Lee said the funding will support nine cadet positions over two years. She said she’ll continue to work on public-private partnerships to sustain the program, which she said is “definitely a priority.”