Despite recent drops in crime, Gov. Newsom is deploying additional CHP officers throughout the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and other major regions.
by Roselyn Romero Aug. 29, 2025 (Oaklandside.org)
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Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday he is sending additional CHP officers to the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other regions of the state.
During a press conference in Sacramento, the governor cited the “successes” of CHP’s ongoing surge operations in Oakland, Bakersfield, and San Bernardino as a reason for expanding the agency’s law enforcement efforts statewide.
“It’s an extraordinary thing to walk the streets of Oakland and have people come up and say ‘Thank you’ to the California Highway Patrol,” Newsom said.
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San Diego, the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, the Central Valley, Sacramento, and the San Francisco Bay Area will see additional CHP “crime suppression teams” in the coming weeks, according to a news release from Newsom’s press office. These teams will assist local police through data-sharing, conduct proactive enforcement in “high-crime areas,” target repeat offenders, and seize illegal drugs and guns.
Describing Oakland as a “hot spot” for crime, Newsom said at the press conference that he first deployed CHP officers to the East Bay early last year after meeting with former Mayor Sheng Thao, Oakland City Council members, Alameda County supervisors, and community leaders. “Perhaps the most vocal advocates for partnership with the California Highway Patrol were members of the clergy,” he said.
“That operation continues to this day, with tremendous success … embraced by the new mayor, current members of the City Council, and those who helped sponsor this effort at the county level,” Newsom said.
Since the agency’s surge operation in Oakland began in February 2024, CHP officers have recovered 4,257 stolen cars and 247 illegal guns and made 73 felony arrests, 420 misdemeanor arrests, and 1,528 DUI arrests, according to the governor’s press office.
“The full-time crime suppression team in Oakland has been extremely successful,” CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee said during Thursday’s press conference. “The numbers speak for themselves.”
Newsom, who over the past several months has appeared to position himself closer toward a presidential run in 2028, emphasized that CHP’s targeted enforcement efforts have “bipartisan” support.
“We’re moving in Republican communities, Democratic communities … we’re all moving in the same direction, and that’s the spirit we’re bringing to this expansion of our existing program,” he said.
The governor’s announcement comes as crime rates are falling statewide, including in Oakland.
According to OPD’s most recent crime data, violent crime — which includes homicide, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery — is down 28% compared with the same period last year. Preliminary data further shows that burglaries are down 26%, car thefts are down 45%, and property theft is down 20% year-over-year.
California’s homicide rate last year was the second lowest it has been since at least 1966. California has generally seen homicide, robbery, and property crime rates at or below pre-pandemic levels, according to Newsom’s press office.
Newsom’s announcement comes less than three months after Castlemont High School teacher Marvin Boomer was fatally struck in a car crash resulting from a CHP pursuit through East Oakland. CHP has previously stated that its officers had called off the pursuit seconds after initiating it.
ROSELYN ROMERO
Roselyn Romero covers public safety for The Oaklandside. She was previously The Oaklandside’s small business reporter as a 2023-24 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism Fellow. Before joining the team, she was an investigative intern at NBC Bay Area and the inaugural intern for the Global Investigations team of The Associated Press through a partnership with the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting. She graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2022 with a bachelor’s in journalism and minors in Spanish, ethnic studies, and women’s & gender studies. She is a proud daughter of Filipino immigrants and was born and raised in Oxnard, California.More by Roselyn Romero
