Residents of Oakland know all too well what it feels like to live under occupation. For generations, Black and Brown communities have been overpoliced, surveilled, and brutalized by a system that prioritizes punishment over protection, displacement over development, and fear over true safety. This reality is perhaps felt most deeply in the flats of East Oakland.
So, when Northeastern University’s Oakland campus (formerly Mills College) announced its plan to create a private police force to patrol East Oakland, many of us weren’t surprised—especially given the current knee-jerk, right-wing political climate funded by out-of-town billionaires. We were, however, enraged. This plan is nothing short of a militarized occupation dressed up as “community safety.” We do not need more police patrolling our streets—especially not a private force created by a university with no real ties to our community.
As it is, we already have the Oakland Police Department, California Highway Patrol, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, BART Police, and East Bay Parks Police. Oaklanders must ask: How many cops and how much money will it take to be “safe”? What is the magic number? The data clearly shows that more police do not create safety.
This isn’t about safety; it’s about control. It’s about imposing the same failed tactics of suppression and criminalization that have harmed our people for hundreds of years.
Northeastern’s plan gives it the power to hire non-sworn officers and security guards—without transparency or accountability. They can even recruit former police officers without informing the community about their backgrounds, misconduct records, or history of abuse. In a city where our police department remains under federal oversight due to long-standing violence and corruption, creating an unregulated private police force is reckless and dangerous.
If Northeastern University truly cared about making East Oakland safer, it would invest that $20 million into what we know works: affordable housing, job training programs, mental health services, grocery stores, and resources for our unhoused neighbors. These are the tools that build safe communities—not more badges, guns, and unchecked power.
Safety is not created through surveillance and suppression. It is created through stability, opportunity, and care.
Did Northeastern knock on doors in East Oakland to ask residents what they need to feel safe? Did they offer options like deeply affordable housing, living-wage jobs, or accessible health services? Of course not. Like many institutions before them, they decided for the people—not with the people.
Now they’re trying to sell this plan with promises of “community engagement”—after the fact. This is not community engagement; it’s damage control.
And let’s be clear about the players behind this plan: Stephanie Hayden, a former Oaklander who now works as a tech advisor to the Chief of Public Safety in Las Vegas, and Brian Germann, a lieutenant with the University of the Pacific’s Department of Public Safety in Stockton who runs a law enforcement consulting company. Neither live in Oakland. This reeks of outside influence, just like the billionaire-backed upheaval we recently fought against.
Oakland needs to remind Northeastern of a fundamental truth: East Oakland is not a playground for experiments in private policing. This community has fought too hard for too long to allow yet another violent, unaccountable institution to take root here.
This is Panther ground. We bleed resistance.
We already have a police department under federal oversight because of racial profiling, excessive force, and sexual assault. Northeastern’s private police force would operate outside that oversight, giving it even more power to act without consequence.
If Northeastern is serious about supporting Oakland, it could start by helping address the city’s $129 million budget deficit. It could fund housing for unhoused residents, build mental health and substance abuse treatment centers, or invest in youth programs. But no—they’ve chosen the lazy, punitive path, throwing money at policing while ignoring the root causes of harm.
This plan dishonors the legacy of Mills College, a historic haven for Black and Brown women, including leaders like Congresswoman-elect Lateefah Simon. Mills was a space of empowerment and education. To turn that campus into a militarized zone patrolled by a private police force is a disgrace to everything it once stood for.
The data is clear: More police do not make us safer. More police mean more harassment, more racial profiling, more brutality, and more trauma for communities already struggling to survive.
Northeastern needs to abandon this plan—immediately. If it truly wants to be a partner in making East Oakland stronger, it must listen to the people who live there. Put that $20 million into real solutions—housing, jobs, and care—not another failed experiment in policing.
We will not allow our community to be occupied by another police force. We will not let outsiders dictate what safety looks like in East Oakland. And we will not be silent while they try.
Cat Brooks is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Anti Police-Terror Project.
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