Oakland, and why arent those new license plate readers being used . The license plate readers youre speaking of are actually mounted on the cars, and this is way outdated. Mayor sheng thao answering our questions tonight. More problems with those driverless taxis in San Francisco. Will the city actually stop the expansion for waymo and cruise . Good evening. This is nbc bay area news tonight. Im raj mathai. Were going to get to that late news coming out of maui about one of the Public Officials there in charge of the fire response. But we start here at home. The surprise fbi raid. Nine cops in the east bay arrested by the feds in a scandal thats plagued the Antioch Police department. Fbi agents rounded up officers from both the antioch and pittsburg p. D. This comes after an 18month investigation into an alleged criminal network. Now, during that investigation, the feds seized the officers cell phones and stumbled upon racist and homophobic Text Messages between dozens of Antioch Police officers. Today a total of ten cops were indicted for a variety of wideranging charges involving multiple crimes like wire fraud, distribution of steroids, and using excessive force. Police officers take an oath. The oath is a solemn promise to defend and follow the constitution of the united states. The indictments unsealed today paint a picture of officers who have violated that oath. Law enforcement officers are sworn for a reason. We bear a tremendous responsibility to police our communities lawfully and in keeping with the constitution, and we must always be true to that oath. Let me be clear. Color of law violations will not be tolerated. Seven of the defendants were in court for their arraignments today. One of them is Antioch Police officer more tay za amiri, charged in two of the indictments. His attorneys say shes disgusted by the fbi raid and says her client would have surrendered peacefully if he was given the opportunity. These dramatics and thats what they were that took place at his house in the very Early Morning hours today were entirely unnecessary. There were flashbangs deployed at his house. He was surrounded, and there was use, as i understand it, of a megaphone. Joining us now is nbcs velena jones, who has been covering this story for us extensively. Also with us, tamisha torreswalker, an Antioch City Council member. Council member, well start with you. What happens now in your city . How do you deal with this . What are you telling the residents of antioch . What we hope will happen now is that we, as city leaders, can start to look forward to the future of Public Safety here in the city of antioch. None of these allegations are new. We have been processing what do we do around measures of Public Safety, and how do we also make sure that we arent ignoring residents who have been historically harmed. Velena, what do we know about those racist Text Messages . What are the officers being charged with . Reporter so this stems you know, this stems from an investigation that started 18 months ago, right, which started with the officers being accused both in the Pittsburg Police department as well as the Antioch Police department of actually hiring people to take College Classes for them and tests. This is all in an effort to get a higher salary and get reimbursement for those College Credits that is able to happen throughout the police department. So this is what started the investigation. What opened this up, as you said, were, you know, an array of racist Text Messages involving dozens of other officers. And so the Investigation Continues into all of this. What theyre being charged with is a wide range of Different Things. Not all of the officers are being charged with the same thing, but were talking about civil rights liberties violations. Were talking about charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics. Also investigations into defrauding the police department. So theres a wide range of Different Things that these officers are being charged with. Council member torreswalker, this isnt just a local story. This is Getting National news. Is this Police Scandal in your city going to get even worse . Weve been having discussions about the potential of it getting worse. We dont believe that this is the end. Again, we have to be we have to acknowledge that these are just allegations. Individuals have been arrested and indicted, but they still need to go through trial and hopefully the Justice System will do what it needs to do to bring justice to the families and individuals harmed by these officers, but also to do something to policing around conduct. How do you work in your communities and youre meant to uphold the law and youre breaking the law at the same time . Since 2020, we have moved Massive Police reform in the city of antioch that we are all proud of, and we know we still have a lot to do. It is a really fine city. Hopefully you can restore the faith in the p. D. Velena, whats next in this case now . Theres a lot happening. Reporter there is a lot happening, and we know that seven of those officers, seven out of the ten, were arraigned today in court. So we still have three more people that still have to come to court for arraignment. A lot of those officers are now being held on 100,000 bond with their house as collateral. We know that a lot of those officers are expected to be back in court by the end of this month as well. Council member torreswalker, velena jones, thank you for your time. Have a good evening. Have a good evening. We want to get you caught up on some other headlines were watching tonight. Two High School Students stabbed on campus. Both were rushed to the hospital as the school went on lockdown. It happened just before noon today at James Lick High School in east san jose. Take a look at this video shared with us by some students. It shows two separate altercations on the Basketball Court that led to a stabbing. Students say it happened during third period outside of p. E. Class. One victim has lifethreatening injuries. The other is expected to be okay. Police say they dont have any suspects right now. The person or people responsible ran before officers arrived. You can see the cruise cars there arriving and our nbc bay area skyranger overhead. And the Police Excuse me the students evacuating the campus. We continue to follow the recovery now on maui. New drone video gives us a fresh look at the destruction as the search continues for human remains. The death toll now stands at 111 lives lost, and we keep saying this. Sadly, that death toll is expected to rise. Federal and state leaders are reviewing the response as calls for accountability continue to grow. About an hour ago, we learned that the head of mauis Emergency Operations is resigning from his position after facing the public for the first time to defend his decision to not sound the emergency alarms. He claims the sirens are primarily used for tsunamis, telling people to go inland, and could have led people into danger. Had we sounded the siren that night, were afraid that people would have gone mauka. If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire. Again, about an hour ago, he has resigned from his position. New Surveillance Video from late monday evening shows potential signs about what may have sparked the wildfires. The video shows a sudden flash, later turning into fire in the morning. While the official cause of the blaze is still being investigated, data shows that 34 major electrical incidents on the power lines around lahaina that same night. Hawaiis Electric Company is now being accused of years of inaction. The new lawsuit alleging the utility knew of the risks for years and failed to take steps to prevent a catastrophe. Also this evening, new concerns about crime in oakland. This time businesses in Little Saigon say they need more help. Tonight Business Owners are meeting with the city and Oakland Police to address that problem. They say if nothing is done, those businesses will be forced to close. Yesterday we told you businesses in Little Saigon said they were targeted by thieves almost on a daily basis. That includes this 7eleven on international boulevard. Nearby Grocery Stores say constant breakins, thefts, and prostitution are driving away customers. These latest concerns come as the oakland chapter of the naacp is calling for a state of emergency because of the spike in violent crime. Theyve written two open letters in recent weeks, pressuring the state and the mayor. Joining us now is oakland mayor sheng thao. Mayor thao, nice to have you back on the program. This has been a tumultuous two weeks in your city. The oakland chapter of the naacp has called for a state of emergency in oakland because of the crime. Would you agree with their assessment . You know, safety in our community is something that i take very seriously, and were all working to reduce and prevent crimes, whether its today, yesterday, last year, or two years ago. Again, this is my top priority, and it is something i take seriously. This is why i actually called the governor for support, and this is why we now have walking officers. When i took on the helms of being mayor, i implemented walking officers. More so than that, the governor is coming in with patrol to support opd. More so than that, 120 million so that we can put up these license plate readers. The license plate readers does more than just read license plates. We know that many criminals are driving stolen vehicles. But this really takes into account the different uniqueness of each vehicle so that we can better account for those who are driving those vehicles while committing crimes and actually apprehend them easier. Mayor thao, speaking of those license plate readers, there are reports there are many around town installed but many are not operating. Can you explain why . Sure. So we currently have license plate readers on the actual opd vehicles. Theyre not throughout the city. This is something very different. This is with a different organization, and it is to be put up in the actual locations throughout the city. But the license plate readers that youre speaking of is actually mounted on the cars, and this is way outdated. So even with the, you know, we didnt actually put in the money for there to be updates last year. So with this, its not actually a viable tool anymore. So im really honored to have the governor really come to support us with this new technology that is uptodate. Not just that, it will be fighting crimes because we know we do not have enough Police Officers patrolling at every point of contact here in the city of oakland. However, we are at 713 officers, and that is the most officers weve had in the last few years. And so myself and interim chief alison, we have been really working hard to beef up our patrol and our officers, and thats exactly what were doing and were accomplishing that. Since we last spoke, our Investigative Unit learned that oakland has the second worst 911 answering times in the state. Is there something you can do to address this . Obviously long wait times for 911 calls are clearly unacceptable, and my administration will be tackling this inherited issue with urgency. You know, this is not anything new. This is something that oakland has been trying to tackle. And, yes, under this administration, were going to do the followup process for responding directly to the grand jurys report, including any inaccuracies that we found. I have directed that 911 call taker vacancies be given top priority in the citys hiring blitz efforts that are currently under way. Mayor thao, thank you for joining us tonight. We appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Up next, could it be a change of plans . Could these driverless taxis be taken off of the streets of San Francisco . We have new details tonight. Youre watching nbc bay area news tonight. Welcome back to nbc bay area news tonight. Pump those brakes. More problems are leading to new calls to limit those Driverless Cars in San Francisco. This comes just a week after state regulators gave the green light to expand the robo taxi service. The latest push comes from San Franciscos city attorney, david chew. Hes formally asking regulators to pause those expansion plans for cruise and waymo. This move comes in the wake of our investigation that revealed selfdriving cars dont always make for a smooth ride. We obtained documents that show selfdriving cars have been involved in 280 crashes over the past five years across california, resulting in at least 64 injuries. Specifically now in San Francisco, in the last week alone, weve seen a lot of these videos pop up. A group of cruise cars causing a traffic jam in north beach. And another that stopped in the middle of an intersection. You see that car there, before turning into a Construction Zone and then stopping again on the wrong side of the road. Regulators knew about these concerns when they gave these Driverless Car Companies permission to expand. So what makes you now think you can change their minds . Well, every day we keep getting new reports of things that are happening on our streets that are very concerning. First of all, were hoping for a staged expansion to make sure that as the number of Autonomous Vehicles increases on the streets of San Francisco, that it is tethered to safety, that they demonstrate that they are safe. Joining us now is our senator investigator, bigad shaban. David chiu speaking out now. Why not speak out a week ago or two weeks ago before this decision was made . The reality is that the city certainly made its concerns clear really going as far back as several months, raj. He is essentially sort of the legal voice now stepping in for city officials who have long made their opinions known, their critiques certainly about this. Now the next step for the city is essentially to get their main legal arm involved to take the next step of essentially trying to fight back. But at issue here is essentially what happened last week, which was giving these two major Driverless Car Companies, waymo and cruise, essentially carte blanche. Theyre able to drive where they want, whenever they want, and how often they want. Theres no cap on just how many of these Driverless Cars they can put on the road, which is really at the heart of this issue. Listen, david chiu, the city attorney, says, were not trying to take them all off the road. But giving these companies the authority to put as many cars as they want so far, there are already hundreds and they could make it thousands overnight. They want a gradual increase. Is it that big of a deal . Whats cruise and waymo saying . This is a test. There are going to be times when they break down. You were in a car a couple weeks ago that broke down as well. Isnt that part of the learning curve, or were not going to be able to accept this . I think ultimately it depends on who you ask. But, yes, that is certainly what waymo and cruise are saying, that their cars are getting smarter and better every day, with every mistake they make. The argument and the hope is that their entire fleet learns how not to make that mistake. But the reality is were seeing new mistakes every day, and so while that might make for an interesting learning opportunity for driverless vehicles, it still amounts to a headache for a lot of drivers on the road. The concern is they could ultimately create safety risks as well. Last week they got the green light, carte blanche. What happens next week or in a couple weeks . Will they be totally chopped off at the legs, or whats the plan . Its important to remember that this decision by the California PublicUtilities Commission was just made seven days ago, and it was after months of meetings and delayed votes, and we had more than six hours of Public Comment at the last vote. So the idea that state regulators would somehow change their mind seven days after they made a decision, i think is pretty farfetched. Clearly what San Francisco is doing is sort of checking the boxes to keep their Legal Options open. But i think the idea that regulators would actually change their mind, i think is pretty slim chances to none. The other agency, though, that could take potential action is the dmv. Ultimately theyre the ones who first gave these companies permits to operate on the roadways. Cpuc just gave these companies permission to charge passengers. But ultimately it was the dmv that deemed them safe for the road. So at any given time, if the dmv feels like these Driverless Cars are posing a safety risk, they could revoke or suspend the permit. Its something that the dmv has done for other Autonomous Vehicle companies in the past. They have never done it for waymo or cruise. Theres no indication that they will. But its certainly something that the dmv has the authority to do. As for when, i think, people can expect to be able to take a ride, raj, as we talked about the last couple of nights, it still requires an invite code. Not just anyone can hail one of these rides, and thats part of the expansion is that these companies are gradually pulling in more people. They say they have a very lengthy wait list. So people are going to have to wait a little bit longer before just anyone can hail a ride. But interestingly the Car Companies say they do want to gradually expand. Well, thats exactly what the city of San Francisco officials want too. They say, hey, waymo and cruise, if thats what you want, lets just put it in writing because i dont think anyone really trusts anyone at this point. You bring in the dmv, which we can all relate to. Thank you for your reporting. Were back in a moment. Lets take you outside to the golden gate bridge. Ngff ranieri is goi welcome back. Jeff ranieri is here talking about our weekend forecast and really kind of things happening down south of us might impact us here in the bay area. Yeah. We are tracking hurricane hilary in that forecast as we roll into the weekend. Lets move it into that microclimate weather. Ill get you into what we can expect here for tomorrow, and then also a look at the hurricane. As we roll through tomorrows forecast, well start it off with some patchy fog. A chance of some afternoon spotty thunderstorms. Up to 82 in napa. 90 in livermore. 86 in san jose. 60s for the coast. When it comes to hurricane hilary, this storm continues to intensify. Latest update right now show winds at 120, category 3, central pressure dropping to 955 millibars. So all signs continue to show this getting Even Stronger tomorrow. 140mileperhour winds, category 4, maybe a first landfall around san felipe in mexico. Then potentially a second landfall in Southern California by early monday morning. Tropical storm, tropical depression status. Well see this kind of move over Central California here as we head through next monday and tuesday. Now, the biggest risk of flash flooding and the heaviest rain will be in Southern California, 2 to 4 inches, especially in the mountains. Look at this lane line. We are close to that heavy rain. Right now looking at scattered rain chances. If that storm were to wobble to the west, we could be talking about heavier rain in the bay area. In that sevenday forecast, temps in the 80s and also the 90s. So monday and tuesday pretty bumpy here across california. Fascinating to see that. Thank you, jeff. Thats going to do it for us at 7 00. For everyone here at nbc bay area, including our director eddie duran, thanks for joining us. Enjoy your evening. We hope to see you back at 11 00. Every business deserves a great deal. Thats why comcast business is launching the mobile made free event. 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