The Oakland Police Community Youth Leadership Council (OPC YLC) was envisioned by Oakland youth who came together after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson back in 2015 as a way to bring youth voice to the public safety decision making tables. The OPC YLC helps to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline by creating and supporting the implementation of policy changes, outlined in their Youth Perspective: Reforms, Solutions, and Recommendations for Accountable and Effective Policing in Oakland to Improve Relations between Law Enforcement, the Community and Youth (read the full report here!).
In June 2021, the youth leaders wrote these letters to the Oakland City Council members to uplift the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force recommendations that were prioritized by the City Council on May 3, 2021. The youth also supported the proposed budget amendments to increase the investment in the Department of Violence Prevention to $17 million dollars.
They also launched a 24-hour #IReimagine Challenge to give faces and names to the community members whose wellbeing we seek to protect by reimagining what public safety might look like beyond policing.
