Memorandum from Phil Kalmarz, Berkeley City Manager, to the Major and City Counsel of Berkeley of Feb. 21, 2006 re: Crime in Berkeley, available at http://209.232.44.21/citycouncil/2006citycouncil/packet/022106/2006-02-21%20Item%2023%20Quarterly%20Report%20-%20Crime.pdf
I was curious about crime rates in Berkeley and if safety is actually an issue or just a perceived issue. I found a 2006 crime report from the Berkeley Office of the City Manager to the Mayor and City Counsel. The report stated that overall crime in Berkeley has declined over the past few years. Violent crime rates in Berkeley have increased and property crime rates have decreased.
The report indicated several factors that impact crime rates, including poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, availability of youth programs, educational opportunities, the state of the economy, and employment opportunities.
The report also listed several crime reduction strategies such as more proactive law enforcement for property crimes, better communication and coordination within law enforcement itself and between law enforcement and the community, public education regarding crime prevention, and community involvement.
The report had graphical comparisons of the crime rates in Berkeley to other cities in the East Bay. While Berkeley’s crime rates were in the middle for violent crimes (26.3 per 10,000), Berkeley had the highest rates for property crimes (379.1 per 10,000).
The report also included 3 maps indicating the crimes rates for property crimes, violent crimes, and car thefts within the city of Berkeley. The crimes rates appear to be the highest in downtown and in South Berkeley near People’s Park though the maps are somewhat hard to read.
Laura Cohen
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
A 2005 report by the California Attorney General on statewide crime statistics reveals crime statistics by county and by cities within a given county. In Alameda County in 2005, there were 9,749 violent crimes, 570 of which were committed in Berkeley (or 5.8%); 38,715 property-related crimes, 3,652 of which occurred in Berkeley (or 9.4%); and 32,088 larceny/theft crimes, 5,503 of which occurred in Berkeley (or 17.1%). Berkeley consistently has the second- or third-highest crime rates in the county, behind Oakland and Hayward. I have also located and reviewed similar tables for San Francisco County and for a statewide overview of California counties for the purposes of comparison; in general, Alameda County ranks only alongside Los Angeles and Orange Counties in its crime rates. Finally, in the 2005 data, I located 17pp. of data charts mapping statewide crime rates between 1983 and 2005 with respect to various kinds of crimes; this data could become useful to us if we could map crime statistics in downtown Berkeley in Beats 3, 4, and 5 over a similar period to compare it to the national average. (My work for next week will involve contacting the Public Information Officer at the Berkeley Police Department.)
Relatedly, I reviewed the California Department of Justice’s report for 2006 on statewide crime rates by major city and by county, and this report reveals some interesting statistics about crime rates in Berkeley generally. For example, while violent crime rose 13.3% in Berkeley in 2006 (statistically higher than the 7.9% average for Alameda County and the 1.5% gain statewide), property crimes in Berkeley fell by 6.4% in 2006 (statistically lower than the 0.5% gain in Alameda County and the 1.5% drop statewide), and larceny/theft crimes fell by 7.4% in 2006 (statistically lower than the 2.0% gain in Alameda County and the 2.8% drop statewide). This may reflect that, while Alameda County’s crime rates are increasing more rapidly than the statewide averages across the board, Berkeley crime rates are dropping comparatively for property and larceny crimes while they are increasing notably for violent crimes.
Jesse Solomon
1. California Department of Justice, 2005 Crime Rates for Alameda County, available at http://stats.doj.ca.gov/cjsc_stats/prof05/01/11.pdf (last visited Jan. 23, 2006).
2. California Department of Justice, 2005 Crime Rates for San Francisco County, available at http://stats.doj.ca.gov/cjsc_stats/prof05/38/11.pdf (last visited Jan. 23, 2006).
3. California Department of Justice, 2005 Crime Rates Statewide by County, available at http://stats.doj.ca.gov/cjsc_stats/prof05/00/11.pdf (last visited Jan. 23, 2006).
4. California Department of Justice, Crime Statistics and Rate Charts: 1983 – 2005, available at http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/glance/pdf/charts.pdf (last visited Jan. 23, 2006).
5. Edmund G. Brown, California Attorney General, California Department of Justice, Criminal Justice Statistics Center, Crime in California Preliminary Report: January through December 2006, available at http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/publications/ preliminarys/jd06/jd06net.pdf (last visited Jan. 23, 2006).
Post a Comment