Detroit, Chicago,Philly, Oakland...all liberal Democrat cities

Guards sought for news crews in Oakland

The violent robbery of a television news crew outside an Oakland school last week was the latest in a series of similar incidents in a city where the rate of strong-arm robberies and holdups is surging.

But the brazenness of the attack - which occurred during a live broadcast in the middle of the day - has brought fresh urgency to the problem.

Union officials who represent reporters at most of the Bay Area's major television and radio stations said Tuesday they had asked the broadcasters to immediately hire security guards to accompany news crews when they are in Oakland. At least one station has already enlisted guards, and others are considering it.

Meanwhile, station managers met Tuesday with Oakland police officials, including Chief Howard Jordan, to discuss the string of robberies, some of which have been committed at gunpoint. One veteran Oakland Tribune photographer, Laura Oda, has been robbed of cameras twice since July.

In a city that is fighting to mend its reputation, the robberies represent a kind of worst-case scenario - with the people who report on crime becoming targets themselves.

The spree also speaks to a reality of the news business: Videographers and photographers carry valuable equipment - gear that has the effect of narrowing their field of vision.

The meeting at police headquarters came as authorities announced the arrest of a teenager in connection with last Wednesday's robbery outside Oakland Technical High School in North Oakland.

Punched in the mouth

KPIX news reporter Anne Makovec and cameraman Gregg Welk were on the air shortly after noon when, police said, five men rushed up and grabbed a $6,000 camera from a tripod. One of the assailants punched Welk in the mouth before the group fled in a Mercedes-Benz.

A day later, police officers in Emeryville pulled over a car for a violation, then searched it after they smelled marijuana and found that the two men inside were on probation, said Emeryville Detective Jason Krimsky. The officers found a gun and cocaine, he said, and arrested the men.

The officers also alerted investigators in Oakland that the men seemed to match a description of the camera thieves. One of them, 19-year-old Delaine Lavert Phillips, was charged Tuesday with the robbery, Alameda County prosecutors said. It was unclear if the second man would face charges as well.

Also a day after the attacks, the union representing broadcast reporters, SAG-AFTRA, sent a letter to Bay Area stations saying the robbery trend "requires immediate attention" in the form of private security in Oakland.

"The last attack was kind of the tipping point," said Len Egert, the union's executive director for Northern California. "There's a risk you're taking all of the time, but because there's been a persistent pattern, we're asking immediately for the security protection."

The union's letter did not specify whether the guards should be armed or not.

"We're leaving that up to the discretion of the (stations') security experts," Egert said.

Egert said the robberies may raise other issues, such as whether television trucks should be unmarked and whether an industry move toward having reporters carry their own cameras - thus traveling alone - poses hazards.

Guards on duty

At least one station, KPIX, is already using security guards in Oakland. At a Tuesday afternoon news conference - during which three officers were reunited with a mother whose baby they delivered in a car - a KPIX crew was accompanied by a guard.

Several stations used private security after being harassed and attacked during Occupy demonstrations late last year in downtown Oakland. Ed Chapuis, news director at KTVU, said guards are now hired on a case-by-case basis, depending on the situation and whether a crew requests one.

Tracey Watkowski, vice president of news for KGO-TV, said her station is looking at private security and "evaluating it as an option."

One reporter at a Bay Area television station, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some videographers are refusing to do stories in Oakland.

"It's scary, there's no doubt about it," she said. "But we're not going to stop covering news in Oakland."

Another television reporter, who also declined to be identified, said, "I think it'd be fair to say it has rattled even some of the veteran staffers, to know there was an attack in front of a school at noon. It made the resolve to cover Oakland stronger, but the resolve to protect ourselves even stronger than that."

Spike in crime

Oakland police officials said the attacks on media members were part of a larger crime spike in the city, and that Tuesday's meeting offered a chance to offer advice on avoiding trouble. Robbery is up 23 percent in 2012 when compared with the same time last year, while auto burglary is up 78 percent.

"We're not treating this differently than the trends we're seeing elsewhere in the public," said Sgt. Chris Bolton, Jordan's chief of staff. "We're experiencing an increase in robberies where victims are targeted specifically for visible electronics."

Bolton said the department was "working on several different strategies designed to impact robberies." He declined to go into details, but said Oakland officers had arrested 61 street robbery suspects since August, including 31 who allegedly stole cell phones.