Authorities said a 29-year-old man was taken into custody and accused of breaking into Oakland City Hall, squatting, and then stealing an SUV connected to Mayor Barbara Lee from the building’s secured garage. <\/p>\n
Police sources say the suspect took the vehicle keys from inside the mayor\u2019s office, where there were signs of tampering at the door. Former San Jose Police Department Officer and Security Analyst Michael Leninger says the incident exposes major security flaws.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe building itself all should have had state-of-the-art alarming. In other words, that person should never have gotten through the mayor’s office door without an alarm going off,\u201d Leninger said.<\/p>\n
According to sources, the suspect entered city hall sometime before Monday, stayed overnight undetected, and even reached the 11th floor, which requires keycard access. It\u2019s unclear how long the suspect was inside the building.<\/p>\n
Leninger says security cameras should be monitored 24\/7 and that guards\u2019 whereabouts should be digitally tracked to prevent gaps in coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes this especially concerning is that she could have walked into her office Monday morning and that suspect could have been hiding in there and security would have had no idea,\u201d Leninger said.<\/p>\n
The city contracts with ABC Security to secure all city owned facilities. Visitors at city hall are required to go through a metal detector. But Leninger explains security standards now call for higher-tech measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cFacial recognition, a sign-in, perhaps even photo ID. And believe they should have photo ID and they should tell you where they’re going,\u201d Leninger said.<\/p>\n
NBC Bay Area tried to reach out to ABC Security for comment Wednesday, but hasn\u2019t heard back.<\/p>\n
In an email to city employees, the city administrator\u2019s office says they have begun an immediate review of security protocols, are working with OPD and external experts to immediate enhance security for city hall and all city facilities. Councilmember Noel Gallo says he feels increased police presence is needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more police presence to make sure that people don’t just come to Oakland and take advantage of the city,\u201d Gallo said. \u201cFor someone to go in the mayor’s office, take the keys, go to the garage that I can’t get to. And run off with the vehicle, you know, it doesn’t say a lot about the public safety that we have in place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authorities said a 29-year-old man was taken into custody and accused of breaking into Oakland City Hall, squatting,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-185647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}