Responding to Street Light Outages and Wire Theft in Oakland

Inter-agency Efforts to Address Wire Theft and Vandalism in the City of Oakland

Unfortunately, unprecedented wire theft and vandalism are impacting Oakland’s traffic signals and streetlights – raising serious issues for public safety and major challenges for city electrical maintenance staff. This is an extremely concerning issue across the state that local governments are working to respond to and address.

Background

Jurisdictions across California (references below), including Oakland, have been experiencing unprecedented wire theft. Impacts have included streetlight and traffic signal outages, in addition to other problematic impacts on public and private infrastructure.

The Oakland Department of Transportation’s Electrical Maintenance staff are responsible for maintaining the City’s over 38,000 streetlights and 600+ traffic signals – which have been impacted by this theft and vandalism. This infrastructure is additionally facing operations and maintenance challenges when people living in encampments tap into it as a source of power – which poses increased risks to the public and themselves.

In order to address this issue, OakDOT staff have been working to pilot and standardize approaches to better secure and fortify the City’s electrical infrastructure for signals and streetlights – and have been working with the City Administrator’s Office and the Oakland Police Department to understand and adopt practices for prevention and deterrence of wire theft, as described below.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are so many streetlights out in Oakland right now?

The City has been experiencing unprecedent copper wire theft, including the wire to our streetlights.We currently have a backlog of approximately 6-8 months to repair this level of damage as our staff are working to complete these repairs in addition to other critical safety repairs to traffic signals. This time to repair is in contrast to OakDOT’s lead time for typical street light repairs, which has been approximately eight weeks.

It seems like it’s just replacing some wire. How big of a deal can it be?

Making the repairs requires significant electrical work, depending on the extent of the theft and/or damage. Unfortunately, due to the pervasiveness of the theft right now – at times the same streetlights experience theft or vandalism soon after the City makes repairs in which case those locations must be re-added to the maintenance queue.

Shouldn’t this be an easy fix?

Unfortunately the extent of theft and damage to the lighting infrastructure citywide and the realities of our limited staffing resources means that repairs take more time than anyone wants.

How hard can it be to replace a wire?

The challenge is not the repair at a single location. It is that we have less than a dozen electricians for the entire City of Oakland who are responsible for over 38,000 streetlights and over 600 traffic signals, and that we have a queue of approximately 8 months for wire theft repairs.

What has been done to prevent the theft?

To deter theft and fortify our city’s electrical infrastructure, our electricians have implemented a number of measures, including: utilizing concrete and epoxy to fortify in-ground electrical boxes; working with welders to develop additional security mechanisms to install on above-ground traffic signal cabinets; and installing wire overhead where it is less likely to be stolen. The City is also exploring a solar lighting pilot, which would have benefits for both sustainability as well as potential theft deterrence.

What else can be done?

The Department of Transportation is also working with the City Administrator’s Office and the Oakland Police Department to understand efforts other jurisdictions are undertaking to address this issue, additional approaches to deter theft, and how to improve communications on “hot leads” on electrical theft by elevating the priority of police dispatch calls on the issue.