The 911 calls started pouring in at 9:53 p.m. on Aug. 21, reporting a growing sideshow at 98th Avenue and Empire Road in Oakland. Callers reported dozens of cars involved and about a hundred spectators.
Dispatcher: “Oakland emergency, Dispatcher 10.”
Caller 1: “Yes, we’re having a sideshow. All the people just coming over here so if we can get some police officers over here.”
Dispatcher: ”How many vehicles sir?
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Caller 3: “A lot!”
This was a mile a half from the Oakland International Airport. Traffic was brought to a standstill and local businesses were disrupted by chaotic crowds and cars performing dangerous stunts in the middle of the intersection.
Uber and Lyft drivers and parents were trapped in traffic, unable to get to the airport.
Caller 4: “I can’t get through! I have to pick up my kids…What is going on with your city man?”
Caller 9: “They’re racing and a car is smoking and I don’t know where is your police?”
At 10:10 P.M., Oakland police received a report of someone injured at the sideshow.
Caller 6: “Yeah, I think this guy got run over. He was in a white Mustang looks like …It looks like somebody was hurt real bad.”
No one was transported to the hospital, according to fire officials, but the chaos continued. Despite several 911 calls, by 10:14 p.m., no Oakland police officers were assigned to the sideshow call yet, according to the police incident recall record.
An officer patrolling told NBC Bay Area staffing was tight and only four police officers were covering the entire west side of Oakland that evening. Dispatchers were apologizing to the 911 callers.
Dispatch: “I do apologize for the delay.”
Dispatch: “We unfortunately don’t have the resources to clear them out right away as soon as we get the first call.”
At 10:20 p.m., nearly a half hour after the first 911 call, a single police unit with two officers responded to the scene and cars started dispersing.
After an NBC Bay Area viewer contacted the Investigative Unit with concerns about the Oakland Police Department’s slow response to this sideshow, our team filed public records requests for incident logs, CAD reports and 911 audio to figure out what really happened.
We also reached to Oakland Police Chief Leronne Armstrong with questions about his department’s response.
“We are putting officers on the streets every weekend to address sideshows, but it’s not nearly enough officers,” Armstrong said. “We are prioritizing violent crime first. And, so, when our officers are assigned to a violent crime investigation, whether that be a homicide or shooting, it makes it difficult for us to break and go to other calls like those."
The Investigative Unit obtained records, showing the calls for service for the same hour as the sideshow that night. They show police were consumed with reports of violent crimes including a possible dead person and four reports of shots fired.
Patrols were also responding to a separate sideshow event on the west side of Oakland. Armstrong said that was, unfortunately, a typical weekend night in Oakland for his officers.
“One of the things we are doing is taking photos of vehicles involved, photos and video of vehicles in sideshows and then writing search warrants and getting them approved by judges to go to the individual’s homes and tow those vehicles as an instrument of a crime,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong said his department is intent on breaking and ending sideshows because they are inherently dangerous. Some have turned deadly.
Last June, Armstrong placed two police officers on leave after they were involved in a sideshow-related high-speed pursuit where the black Nissan involved spun out of control and crashed into four men walking on the sidewalk. 28-year-old Lolo Soakai, who wasn’t involved in the sideshow or the pursuit, was killed.
Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill allowing judges to suspend driver licenses up for up to six months for anyone involved in a sideshow even as a spectator.
Armstrong said that supports that new law and would like to see harsher penalties.
