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<\/p>\nCity staffers praised the deal as a compromise that will help retain and recruit qualified officers, but some residents have unanswered questions.<\/p>\n
Sep 15, 2026<\/p>\n
Updated 11:40 am PT<\/p>\n
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Former interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins addresses Oakland residents at an educational workshop about Oakland\u2019s biennial budget process at the Main Library on March 11, 2025.\u00a0(David M. Barreda\/KQED)<\/p>\n
Oakland<\/a> City Council members on Tuesday plan to consider approving raises and bonuses for hundreds of police officers, despite some residents\u2019 concerns about skyrocketing expenses amid a budget deficit.<\/p>\n The deal negotiated by the police union and city staff, announced last month,<\/a> would increase base wages by 14% over five years and offer longevity premium pay aimed at retaining and attracting qualified personnel to the understaffed department. The city council plans to give the proposed salary changes a second reading on Oct. 6, a required step before the ordinance can take effect.\u00a0<\/p>\n City staffers praised the development as a compromise, with officers agreeing to pay more for their pension and healthcare costs. The city currently covers 100% of healthcare premiums for police rank and file, as well as managers. Under the tentative agreement, members of the Oakland Police Officers\u2019 Association would contribute 10% to their employee healthcare by 2030, and an additional 3% to their pension later that year.<\/p>\n \u201cThese agreements strike an important balance between supporting officer retention, improving public safety and protecting the city\u2019s long-term financial stability,\u201d City Council President Kevin Jenkins said in a statement. \u201cThese contracts help the city remain competitive while recognizing the service of the officers who serve our community every day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The move comes after San Francisco and its police union earlier this year agreed<\/a> to give officers a 14% pay increase over four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a nod to concerns that police overtime spending in Oakland often goes over budget, employees would need written agreement from the police chief or his designee to earn compensatory time off when working overtime.<\/p>\n But some residents said that the proposed contract measure is insufficient to corral mushrooming overtime costs. Anne Janks, an advocate with the Coalition for Police Accountability, said she\u2019s also disappointed that the public has not had a real chance to weigh in on the tentative deal or get more information about it.<\/p>\n City staffers estimated the recent labor agreement would cost an additional $88.9 million <\/a>in wages and premiums over five years, after savings in benefit costs. Janks questioned, however, whether that total factored in pay for nonunion officers and pension costs. She also wondered whether the longevity bonuses \u2014 which were previously paid as a lump sum \u2014 would now be included in salaries, with compounding impacts for raises and pensions. The answers weren\u2019t immediately clear.<\/p>\n \u201cThis contract as proposed, it\u2019s going to be a major, major hit on our budget,\u201d said Janks, an Oakland resident for more than 25 years. \u201cThe question is, is it going to accomplish what they are proposing, that it\u2019s gonna do retention? Let\u2019s have a really open discussion about how much it\u2019s actually gonna cost.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Jenkins did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the planned vote Tuesday, nor did City Councilmember Charlene Wang, who chairs the Public Safety Committee and praised the proposed contract.<\/p>\n City staffers and a union representative were not immediately available for comment. In an earlier statement, the union cited a study by the Office of the Inspector General showing the department is 370 officers short<\/a> of what it needs to be fully staffed. While there are 603 sworn officers, only 507 are available to work on any given day.<\/p>\n Policing is Oakland\u2019s most expensive city service, with a $410.6 million budget<\/a> this fiscal year. The tentative labor agreement comes as the city faces annual budget shortfalls<\/a> of about $120 million until 2030, and increased scrutiny over its police overtime spending. The Oaklandside reported<\/a> earlier this year that a single lieutenant was paid more than $490,000 in overtime in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cops are already well paid; the overtime is ridiculous; there wasn\u2019t a transparent process; and the other piece of this is they have 45 officers sitting at home pulling a paycheck for months because they are waiting for disciplinary hearings,\u201d said Jose Dorado, a former Oakland police commissioner from 2017 through 2021. \u201cWe need better management, better deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n Oakland police officers receive base pay ranging between about $106,000 to $148,000 per year, plus additional pay incentives, according to a department recruiting website<\/a>. That\u2019s above what some officers in the state make, but in line with what police in other Bay Area cities earn. The mean annual wage for police and sheriff\u2019s patrol officers in California is about $112,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City staffers praised the deal as a compromise that will help retain and recruit qualified officers, but some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-464723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464723","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=464723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/250428-OPD-FILE-MD-01-KQED-1.jpg\")
An Oakland Police Department squad car in downtown Oakland on April 28, 2025.\u00a0(Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/p>\n