About the Patrols

Our Patrol Service
Patrol staff are unarmed. The primary purpose of the patrols is to enhance the safety of all Rockridge neighbors and guests. They accomplish this by:
  • patrolling our neighborhood streets and public spaces to create a visual deterrent to crime
  • serving as a resource to residents and guests who may have immediate security concerns, and
  • providing Oakland Police Department with documentation of observations that can help them in their duties of law enforcement.
Their dispatch center can be reached at 877-272-8765, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please contact them if you see any suspicious activity, have a security-related concern, or simply want to meet the patrol staff.
Patrol Area and Patrol Hours
Consult this map to determine if your house is in the coverage area.
Safer Rocrkridge Patrol Area
For security reasons, we only publish the patrol hours in our monthly newsletter, so please subscribe if you haven’t already.
The Safer Rockridge leadership team monitors the patrol cars via a GPS tracking system. Our historical experience is that the patrols pass by almost every house in the patrol area on each day of operation.
Effectiveness of Patrols
Paul Liu, Ph.D., an economist and one of the founders of Safer Rockridge, analyzed the impact of the patrols on burglaries and robberies in Rockridge with Bayesian statistical modeling using over seven years of Oakland-wide, historical data through October 2014. He estimates that burglaries and robberies were down by 30% after initiation of the patrols, relative to what they would have been without the patrols. He also found no evidence to suggest that the patrols have caused a spill-over effect in neighborhoods adjacent to Rockridge. See the full report at http://goo.gl/zY27Z4.
Our Patrol Provider
Our current provider is Intervention Group, Inc. (IGI) and has served Safer Rockridge since March 2018.
IGI was established in 2005 and is an Oakland-based and Black-owned small business. Tonya Montalvo is a Partner and Chief Executive Officer and Nathan Cook is President and General Manager. Together they bring over 25 years’ experience in safety, security, patrol, protection services and corporate loss and prevention provided to individuals, residential communities, small businesses, and large corporate clients.
IGI is a licensed, bonded, and insured private patrol operator, and as such, is regulated by the Bureau of Security & Investigative Services, part of the state of California’s Department Consumer Affairs.
The Patrol Staff
The patrol officers are unarmed, are prohibited from using racial or discriminatory profiling, and can only intervene to protect someone from imminent physical harm.
They are trained to observe and report suspicious or criminal activity, and their first response to any criminal or safety concern will be to contact Oakland Police Department. They will then observe, report, and assist anyone in need when it is safe to do so.  The patrol officers and their management will also communicate regularly with Safer Rockridge so that information about the patrols can be shared with the community.
Patrol Philosophy
Patrol officers generally will not physically intervene, but instead will provide a visual presence and call the police when appropriate. If they witness any portion of a crime, patrol officers will provide eyewitness and other evidence to the police as well. That said, if there is a crime in progress where a person is being harmed or facing imminent harm, the patrol officer may choose to intervene physically if in their judgment they feel it is safe to do so.
Safer Rockridge intends for patrol officers to be part of the community. As such, we expect them to converse with members of the community on their daily rounds. Please introduce yourselves and talk with them as well. If there is a surge in crime on your street, please call them and ask them to come and stop by so you and your neighbors can talk with them.
Training
Patrol officers receive training as required by the State of California and by their employer, Intervention Group, Inc. In addition, most of our officers have been life-long residents of Oakland and are very familiar with the community.
Racial Profiling
Racial profiling is typically an issue that arises with police departments using racial or religious bias in exercising their discretionary right to detain citizens. Our contracted patrols do not stop or detain people, however, and it is our policy that the Safer Rockridge safety patrols are prohibited from engaging in racial or other discriminatory profiling.
Complaints
We want to know about positive and negative experiences with patrol staff. While the feedback we received tends to be very positive, occasionally there are performance issues which we are committed to addressing promptly. The board members of Safer Rockridge are all volunteers who live in the patrol area (i.e., your neighbors). If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Safer Rockridge by sending us an email at saferrockridge@gmail.com. In addition, if this matter is of a serious enough nature, you can also file a complaint with the State of California at http://www.bsis.ca.gov/consumers/complaints.shtml.