Oakland has a long history of activism around issues of inequity and social justice. It is, therefore, not surprising that Oakland was chosen in 2017 to be among the first cohort of five cities to develop local Equity Indicators tools in partnership with the City University of New York’s Institute for State and Local Governance (CUNY ISLG) and with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The equal access accommodations Indicator is measured by comparing the percent of public contact position (PCP) employees who speak Spanish to the percent of Spanish speakers who have limited English proficiency (LEP) citywide. The Equal Access to Services Ordinance includes a requirement for City departments to offer bilingual services based on citywide demographics. In FY2016-2017, the two languages required by the ordinance were Spanish and Chinese. We chose to measure Spanish-speaking PCP employees for this Indicator because Spanish speakers comprise a larger proportion of the population.

The Business Development Topic includes three Indicators that measure racial and ethnic disparities in business ownership, prime contracts awarding, and business vacancy. The first Indicator in this Topic measures disparities in business ownership rates between African American and White Oaklanders. The second Indicator measures disparities in the distribution of contracts under $100,000 awarded by the City to African American and White business owners. The third Indicator measures disparities in the location of business addresses that had been vacant for two years or more by majority race/ethnicity of census tracts.

The Incarceration Topic includes three Indicators that measure racial and ethnic disparities in adult felony arrests, jail incarceration, and prison incarceration. The first Indicator measures disparities in adult felony arrests between African Americans and Asians. The second Indicator measures disparities in jail incarceration between African Americans and Asians. The third Indicator measures disparities in prison incarceration between African Americans and Asians. In all three indicator areas the disparities between African American and White residents were nearly as large.

The Teachers Topic includes three Indicators that measure racial and ethnic disparities in teacher representation of the student population, teacher experience, and teacher turnover. The first Indicator measures disparities in teacher representation of students between Latinos and Whites. The second Indicator measures disparities in teacher experience between schools that are predominantly African American and Latino vs. schools that are majority White. The third Indicators measures disparities in teacher turnover between majority African Americans and majority White schools.

The Community Stressors Topic includes three Indicators that measure racial and ethnic disparities in domestic violence, homicides, and juvenile felony arrests. The first Indicator measures disparities in domestic violence victimization between African Americans and Asians. The second Indicator measures disparities in homicides between African Americans and Asians. The third Indicator measures disparities in juvenile felony arrests between African Americans and Whites.

Mortality is a widely recognized measure of population health. This Topic includes an Indicator on infant mortality, which is particularly important to public health and relates to other health outcomes, including access to care. The other two Indicators in this Topic, life expectancy and premature death, reveal disparities in how long individuals are expected to live and whether they are able to meet those expectations. In all three Indicators, African Americans have the worst outcomes.

The Staffing Topic includes three Indicators that measure racial and ethnic disparities in OPD sworn staff representation, attrition from academy, and attrition from field training. The first Indicator measures disparities in how well OPD sworn staff represent the demographics of Oakland, specifically between Whites and African Americans. The second Indicator measures disparities in attrition from academy between African Americans and Whites. The third Indicator measures disparities in attrition from field training between Latinos/Asians and Whites.

Oakland has a long history of activism around issues of justice and equity. Both oppression and this resistance to oppression have shaped the city’s past and the lives of its residents to this day. It is, therefore, not surprising that Oakland was chosen in 2017 to be among the first cohort of five cities to develop local Equity Indicators tools in partnership with the City University of New York’s Institute for State and Local Governance (CUNY ISLG) and with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Job Quality Topic includes three Indicators that measure access to high quality jobs that pay a living wage and promote career development and long term economic stability. The first Indicator in this Topic measures disparities in employment rates in high wage industries. The second Indicator measures racial and ethnic disparities in the likelihood of having a job that pays at least living wage. The third Indicator measures racial and ethnic disparities in participation rates in workforce development programs intended for unemployed individuals.