Now, surveillance cameras, which cost up to $17,000 each and can record all activity in a three to five block range, are the newest policing equipment residents plan to buy.

Self-policing has been the modus operandi of Chinatown since the first Chinese immigrants in the late 1800s set up family organizations called “Tongs.”  Tong leaders, not the police, settled disputes and enforced the law, said Bill Wong, journalist and author of Images of America: Oakland’s Chinatown.

Today, the Asian Advisory Committee on Crime, comprised of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and community leaders, heads the campaign for cameras.

Chamber co-founder, Victor Mar, 92, has been the committee treasurer since 1992 when the community began paying for police. The total amount spent over the last 15 years equals more than $51,587.20, covering the police sub-station’s rent, computers, patrol bikes and, at one time, a motorcycle. 

In 1998, the committee picked up the bill for Officer Warren Young’s airfare ($275) to attend a violence prevention conference.  And, in 2002, they covered Officer Barry Ko’s monthly pager fee ($93).  The city should pay for all of this, said Mar, but he considers it a “give and take” relationship. 

Jennie Ong, Executive Director of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, said the new camera monitors will be kept in the Chinatown sub-station on the second floor of the Pacific Renaissance Plaza, where the Oakland police department is housed rent-free.

“Everything you see in this office has been donated,” said Officer Dan Ming as he proudly pointed at the two Dell computers, a conference table, couches and a dry eraser board, all of which have been given topolice by neighborhood merchants. “The only thing that’s not donated is my salary,” said Mingm who is paid by the city.

Police presence in Chinatown grew when an influx of powerful gangs from Hong Kong and Vietnam began to rule the neighborhood in the late 1970s, said Walter Chinn, who was recruited by Vice Mayor Frank Ogawa in 1982 to deal with the problem. 

At that time, Chinatown residents could not walk down 10th Street between Harrison and Webster without getting harassed by young thugs, said Chinn, now 84, who was Ogawa’s chief of staff. 

One change from the old days is that Chinn succeeded in lowering the height requirement for police officers and recruited multi-lingual cops.  Currently, there are 130 Asian cops on Oakland’s police force.

Before coming to America, “many [immigrants] experienced suppression carried out by the police,” said Carl Chan, president of the Chinatown Chamber Foundation.  Teaching new immigrants about the role of police in the community, along with having multi-lingual cops, helps create a greater feeling of safety among residents.

Even the homeless people say they feel safer in Chinatown than in other Oakland neighborhoods, said Officer Vy Le, who patrols Chinatown by foot.

However, in a city recently designated as the country’s fourth most dangerous by the controversial CQ Press report, a neighborhood with low rates of crime has to fight for precious city funds.

“I guess the thinking was, “Well, OK, there aren’t any problems there, so we’ll take the budget away,” said Officer Ming, whose overtime hours have been reduced in the Chinatown sub-station.

Meanwhile, the plan to buy and install surveillance cameras continues; so does the rest of Chinatown’s commitment to do-it-yourself policing.

Currently, Chinatown has a low crime rate compared to other Oakland neighborhoods.  Although the city logged its 111th homicide in November, Chinatown has had none this year. 

“There were 10 robberies in Chinatown this past [September], with an average of two per week,” said Lt. Paul Berlin who presides over the area. This was a drop in the bucket among the city’s 2,805 robberies to date.

It’s hard to say if today’s low crime rate is the result of Chinn’s work leading the merchants, Tong leaders and the police on a crusade against crime organizations over 20 years ago.

But he laid the groundwork for the current form of community policing in Chinatown by getting the three key groups to work together.  Now the Asian Advisory Committee on Crime meets monthly to discuss Chinatown crime and take action, such as persuading property owners to donate space for the police sub-station and researching surveillance camera vendors.