Berkeley Police Department / City Manager Reports to City Council

Week Six Readings: Berkeley Police Department / City Manager Reports to City Council

Bluebook Citations:

1. Memorandum from Phil Kamlarz, City Manager, to Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council of the City of Berkeley of Feb. 12, 2008, re: Quarterly Report: Crime in Berkeley.

2. Memorandum from Phil Kamlarz, City Manager, to Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council of the City of Berkeley of Sept. 18, 2007, re: Quarterly Report: Crime in Berkeley.
   

3. Memorandum from Phil Kamlarz, City Manager, to Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council of the City of Berkeley of Mar. 13, 2006, re: Quarterly Report: Crime in Berkeley.

4. Memorandum from Phil Kamlarz, City Manager, to Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council of the City of Berkeley of Feb. 21, 2006, re: Quarterly Report: Crime in Berkeley.

Summary:

The City Council of the City of Berkeley requires the City Manager, Phil Kamlarz, to provide quarterly reports on crime rates in Berkeley to the Council. Although these reports are meant to be generated on a quarterly basis and shared at City Council meetings for discussion about crime prevention strategies, the reports seem to have been generated and made available online on a somewhat more sporadic basis. (I have only been able to locate two reports from spring 2006, one from fall 2007, and one from spring 2008). These reports are generated prior to City Council meetings so that the City Manager can present the findings to the Council at the meeting, the Council can discuss crime reduction strategies, and the Council can discuss the findings of the reports.

These reports reveal some interesting information about the way in which crime is committed, tabulated, and analyzed by the City of Berkeley.

First, the initial Feb. 21, 2006 report on 2005 crime rates in Berkeley includes three graphs charting concentrations of crime rates within the City of Berkeley itself – an extremely valuable resource given that it can be difficult to determine where different kinds of crime are concentrated within overall crime rates for the city (i.e., to what degree do City of Berkeley crime rates reflect crimes committed downtown?). These mapped charts demonstrate that violent crimes are strongly concentrated downtown and to the south of campus in the City of Berkeley, centered at Allston and Shattuck downtown and at Regent and Dwight to the south of campus. Property crimes are strongly concentrated downtown on Shattuck between Allston and Center Streets. Automobile burglaries, however, do occur downtown but are more frequently committed south of UC Berkeley’s campus along Dwight Street.

Second, the initial Feb. 21, 2006 report on 2005 crime rates in Berkeley also includes per capita comparison between the City of Berkeley and other cities nearby (Fremont; Oakland; Richmond; Hayward; Vallejo; Concord). That data demonstrates that Berkeley ranks third behind Oakland and Richmond in violent crimes per capita (Berkeley has 26.3 violent crimes per 10,000 people, while Oakland and Richmond each have over 60), but Berkeley has by far the highest rate of property crimes among all cities, at 379.1 property crimes per 10,000 people. These charts thus reflect that Berkeley’s crime rates for property crimes are the highest in Alameda County, and they are concentrated in downtown Berkeley, and that Berkeley’s violent crime rates are high and also concentrated downtown – although not as high as the rates in Oakland or Richmond.

Third, the most recent 2008 report on Berkeley crime rates includes some interesting commentary that Mayor Bates neglected to mention in his speech to the class. Mayor Bates cited Berkeley as having 210 full-time police officers; this 2008 report indicates that budget cuts and reduced grant funding have forced the Berkeley Police Department to reduce 203 sworn officers in 2001 to 186 sworn officers in 2008. The report notes that these budget reductions may prevent the police department from achieving further crime reduction goals.

Finally, I think it is notable that the City Council directs the Berkeley Police Department to report its crime rates and statistics through the City Manager, and that the Berkeley Police Department has the opportunity to communicate about its approach to law enforcement and its response to citywide planning. To me, this is all the more reason why I would like to know the question that went unanswered in Mayor Bates’ talk: whether and to what degree the Berkeley Police Department had a hand in creating the Public Commons for Everyone Initiative and redrafted ordinances.