Alameda County Grand Jury
2023-2024
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Findings & Recommendations
29 findings
F24-1:
The Oakland Police Department does not have along-term strategic plan for implementation and use of technology.
F24-2:
The Oakland Police Department does not respond to all ShotSpotter verified alerts.
F24-3:
The Oakland Police Department will be unable to respond to an estimated 100+ license plate reader alerts per day.
F24-4:
The Oakland Police Department does not have written procedures for responding to ShotSpotter and license plate reader alerts.
F24-5:
Without written procedures, the Oakland Police Department is unable to evaluate how to improve the effectiveness and identify bias in its response to alerts.
F24-6:
The Oakland Police Department’s IT Unit is understaffed, reducing its ability to support existing technologies and implement long-term plans.
F24-7:
The Oakland Police Department’s IT Unit does not fully utilize Oakland’s city IT department productivity tools including, but not limited to, trouble ticketingsystem, monitoring services and inventory systems. 22 2023-2024 Alameda County Civil Grand Jury Final Report ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
F24-8:
The Oakland Police Department does not utilize voice form technology to assist officers when writing reports.
F24-9:
The Oakland City Council disregarded expert city staff and an impartial consultant’s
F22-23:
Overall county salaries have not kept pace with Alameda County’s goal of remaining at least in the median salary range of surrounding counties.
F24-10:
Out of public view, the Oakland City Council used a non-competitive process to select a revenue producing billboard provider.
F24-11:
Out of public view, the Oakland City Council used a non-competitive process to select nonprofit organizations to receive billboard revenue and free advertising space.
F24-12:
An Oakland City Council member should have recused themselves from consideration of nonprofit recipients because their spouse has been a board member of one of the organizations and has been a paid consultant to another.
F24-14:
The grand jury found that as of March 1, 2024, it was reported that 26% of Alameda County jobs are funded and unfilled. County Human Resource Services department has not been able to determine the accurate vacancy rate for the county due to departments intentionally leaving positions unfilled and reallocating the funds to other purposes.
F24-15:
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors has no policy regarding how long a budgeted employee position can remain vacant. 50 2023-2024 Alameda County Civil Grand Jury Final Report ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
F24-16:
It usually takes between three to eight months for agencies in Alameda County to fill an open position, and sometimes even a year or more.
F24-17:
Alameda County Human Resource Services department does not have sufficient staff to meet current recruitment processing needs in a timely manner.
F24-18:
There is a 10-day notification requirement prior to interviewing applicants.
F24-19:
The Alameda County Human Resource Services department is only allowed to provide departments with the names of the candidates with the top 5 scores for a position. Departments are only allowed to interview from this top 5 list.
F24-20:
Some individual departments’ long interview time frames are one of the biggest delays in the hiring process.
F24-21:
The Alameda County Human Resource Services department has taken the first steps to modernize the employment website to maximize recruitment efforts and collect useful data, but much more needs to be done.
F24-22:
Applicants’ most common reasons for turning down job offers are insufficient salary, lack of remote work opportunities, and crime near county offices.
F24-24:
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors has not conducted an annual salary survey per the requirements of the county charter.
F24-25:
The Alameda County Human Resource Services department fails to collect sufficient data on many aspects of human resource management. 51 2023-2024 Alameda County Civil Grand Jury Final Report ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
F24-26:
The Alameda County Probation Department has a high incidence of inoperable vehicles.
F24-27:
There is an ongoing problem with vehicles being broken into and parts being stolen at probation parking lots.
F24-28:
There is no current Alameda County Probation Department mandatory management-specific training offered to new supervisors.
F24-29:
The Alameda County Probation Department case management software does not provide any notifications regarding cases approaching their required review deadlines.
F25-13:
The Oakland City Council allowed lobbyists for billboard companies to have undue influence over the process by providing content and language that was inserted verbatim into official council documents.