Agenda packet — Berkeley City Council, May 5, 2022 (part 13 of 14)

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 15 Development and implementation of the Tiered Dispatch model advances the Berkeley City Council’s July 14, 2020, direction “to evaluate initiatives and reforms that reduce the footprint of the Police Department and limit the Police’s scope of work primarily to violent and criminal matters”. 15 Tiered Dispatch/CERN Pilot Program
Based on the information garnered from the preparation of its deliverable reports and an understanding of the approaches being taken by jurisdictions across the country, NICJR recommends the establishment of a Tiered Dispatch/CERN Pilot Program, focused on a subset of the Tier 1 call types that can be used in the pilot phase in order to work out logistical and practical challenges prior to scaling up the program. Upon implementation of the pilot phase of the Tiered Dispatch/CERN, BPD would no longer respond to the identified subset of Tier 1 (non-criminal) calls for service which would instead be handled by the CERN responders.

NICJR recommends contracting with local Community Based Organizations (CBOs) who are best prepared to successfully navigate and leverage local resources, services, and supports, to respond to the pilot Tier 1 calls.

The call types designated for the pilot phase are the 13 call types listed in the Table below. This subset of Tier 1 calls, selected due to the combination of high volume of calls and incidents that could be effectively handled by community respondes, accounts for 89,283 total calls or approximately 25 percent of all calls over the 5-year study period.
15 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/RIPST.aspx

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 16 Tier 1 Subset of CFS for Pilot # of calls
in 2015
# of calls
in 2016
# of calls
in 2017
# of calls
in 2018
# of calls
in 2019
Abandoned Vehicle 403 449 481 476 496
Disturbance 6741 6955 7447 7540 6709
Found Property 900 914 888 779 726
Inoperable Vehicle – – – 1 6
Lost Property 16 16 17 15 14
Noise Disturbance 3359 3307 3239 3158 2709
Non-Injury Accident 561 617 571 564 492
Suspicious Circumstances 2586 2354 2254 2184 2041
Suspicious Person 1628 1698 1756 1653 1479
Suspicious Vehicle 1560 1687 1626 1385 1448
Vehicle Blocking Driveway – – – 345 953
Vehicle Blocking Sidewalk – – – 15 45
Vehicle Double Parking – – – 6 14
T otal 17,754 17,997 18,279 18,121 17,132
Tiered Dispatch/CERN Pilot Program Implementation Steps NICJR recommends that the City develop and issue a request for proposals to contract with Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to become CERN responders.

NICJR’s recommendation is to divide the City into two CERN districts and award contracts to two CBOs to cover each district. Each CERN district should have three teams (one team per shift) of two CERN responders or Community Intervention Specialists, plus two additional Community Intervention Specialists as floaters to cover staff who call out or are on vacation.

For the pilot program, each CERN district would include the following staff:
•
8 Community
Intervention Specialists
• 3 o
f the Community Intervention Specialists would be leads, to have a lead Community Intervention Specialist (CIS) on each shift
• 1 CERN Supervisor

• 3 CERN Dispa
tch/Administrative staff
A position overview for the Community Intervention Specialist is included as Appendix A.

Although as a part of the RFP process applicant CBOs would submit proposed budgets, a sample budget of one CERN team is included in Appendix B. According to BPD’s June 10, 2021, budget presentation to the City

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 17 Council, the Department is currently holding $6.4 million in annual salary savings in vacant positions while the Reimagining Public Safety process plays out. These funds more than cover the costs of a CERN pilot. This budget does not include training and technical assistance for the CERN and BPD dispatch that NICJR suggest be provided by an organization that has implemented an alternative response program.

Dispatch
The following information was provided by BPD about dispatch:

Dispatchers are trained to identify approximately 170 pre-established call types for CFS in the CAD system. Some call types may be administrative and specific to BPD or categorized by California penal or vehicle code, and others are categorized by the Berkeley municipal code. Dispatchers are also trained to identify about 40 pre-determined call types for fire and EMS CFS.

The dispatcher identifies an applicable call type to assign the CFS based on what the caller is describing.

The call type also determines the response level priority. The reliability of the call type assignment is dependent upon what the dispatcher is being told by the caller. Often the information the dispatcher obtains is unclear, fractured, or incomplete.

If the information or circumstances of an incident do not clearly fit a call type, BPD uses a ‘catch all’ call type description that dispatchers apply to initiate a response to the CFS. Some examples of call types include:
• 415 (Disturbance)
• SUSCIR (Suspicious Cir
cumstance)
• 10-42 (Welf
are Check)
• UNK (Unkno
wn Problem)
• PCVIO (Misc
ellaneous Penal Code Violation)
• ADVICE (A
dvice)
Therefore, the outcome of the CFS can be very different from the original call type assignment. Call types may change based on receiving new information prior to an officer arriving on-scene. Once an officer arrives on-scene the call type remains the same, but the final disposition or outcome of the CFS can be different from the call type when dispatched.

To implement the Tiered Dispatch/CERN model, training will be needed for dispatchers. But, per the process described above by BPD, there is not much of a change to how dispatchers will be asked to operate. When dispatchers identify a call as one of the 13 pilot program call types, they will send that call to the CERN Dispatch in the CERN district the call is coming from.

NICJR has suggested the 13 call types for the pilot initiative based on an examination of the call for service data including the call type at intake as well as final disposition. Appendix C includes a summary of and some actual Berkeley 911/CFS incidents among the 13 suggested call types to be in the pilot.

BPD currently receives many calls to its non-emergency phone line and often dispatches officers to those CFS.

The CERN would also receive those CFS through BPD dispatch but the CERN should also have its own direct non-emergency line to receive CFS directly from the community that do not have to be routed through BPD.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 18 Specialized Care Unit (SCU)
The City of Berkeley has initiated several police reform/public safety reimagining initiatives in the past 18 months, including the development of a SCU that was separate from this Reimagining Public Safety process.

NICJR consultants worked with the Task Force and consultants on the SCU project to collaborate on community outreach addressing response to mental health calls. In the broad survey that received more than 2800 responses, a large majority of the respondents (80.8%) indicated a preference for trained mental health providers to respond to calls related to mental health and substance use, with most among those respondents indicating that police support should be available when needed. 16 NICJR has received occasional updates
on the SCU development process. The final report on the SCU is due to be released on the same day as the submission of the draft of this Final Report to the City and Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. With the understanding that the SCU will respond to calls for service related to mental health and substance abuse, NICJR recommends that either the SCU becomes a division of the CERN and responds to the specified call types identified in the SCU development process or that the SCU becomes a separate, third dispatch option.

Both options are depicted below:
16 Page 16 of the Community Engagement Report

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 19 Example Tiered Dispatch/CERN Response from Call to Completion A Berkeley resident who lives in an apartment building calls 911 at 2:00 a.m. saying there has been ongoing loud music and noises coming from a nearby unit in the apartment building. The dispatcher determines that the call is a 415E - Noise Disturbance call in South Berkeley and routes the call information to the South Berkeley CERN. The CERN dispatcher calls or radios the Community Intervention Specialist team on duty and provides them information about the call, both verbally and in the CAD, and directs them to the call.

The CIS team arrives on scene and hears the loud music. They knock on the door that the music is emanating from and talk with the occupants. After some discussion using their mediation training, the CIS team convinces the occupants to turn down their music. The lead CIS enters notes into the CAD (or other data system if an alternative is decided upon)
In 2019, according to the BPD CAD data, there were at least 1,000 disturbance calls for service involving loud music. Nearly all of those calls were responded to by a sworn police officer.

Once the pilot has been initiated, NICJR recommends the following steps:

1. Assess the
pilot program, including response times, resolution of emergency, how often officers are being requested to the scene by the CERN, and other measures;

2. Implemen
t regular CERN debriefs to assess circumstances in which officers were asked to respond and the associated outcome, as well as when they were not called and the associated outcome -- this will assist in identifying potential expansion or reduction of specific types of CFS in each response tier and allow the City to better tailor the program to the community needs;

3. Ev
aluate administrative, budget, and staffing implications from the transfer of services, noting both successes and challenges that impact program implementation - i.e. vacant positions, staff turnover, access to data, additional or specific training needed etc.;

4. Gr
adually expand the pilot to have CERN respond to all Tier 1 CFS Alternative responses should be piloted and scaled after proven effective. As the Tiered Dispatch system is built out, BPD patrol staffing can be reduced through attrition and the budget can be reduced, and more funds can continue to be made available to support alternative responses and investment in addressing root cause issues.

NICJR is not recommending officer layoffs, but reducing the BPD budget through attrition. According to data provided by BPD, in the five years between 2016-2020, an average of 17 officers per year left the Department.

As alternative response is implemented, BPD should concentrate its officers’ efforts on serious, violent felonies, with a top priority on gun crimes. We also recommend shifting BPD resources and staff time (sworn and non- sworn) to investigations, with a focus on solving violent crimes and improving clearance rates.

Potential CERN CBO Providers
There are a small number of community based organizations in Berkeley that could operate a CERN. Three of these are briefly highlighted below:

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 20 Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS)
Established in 1971, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) oversees a variety of programs and services encompassing housing, reentry, violence prevention, employment, education, and criminal justice policies. A major initiative BOSS has created is Neighborhood Impact Hubs, which provide resources and services to neighborhoods in Alameda County that experience concentrated poverty and violence. Supports provided include job training, community outreach, peer support, mediation, and others. 17 BOSS also operates many transitional and permanent housing sites for individuals experiencing homelessness.

Specialists known as Housing Navigators work to provide housing to individuals and families in the BOSS Network as well as those referred to the organization by way of the 211 Coordinated Entry System and Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services.
18 BOSS also manages Street Outreach teams in Oakland,
working in neighborhoods with high rates of violence. BOSS has worked in Berkeley since its inception.

Bonita House, Inc.

Bonita House, Inc. is a non-profit organization that provides an array of services ranging from treatment for psychiatric and substance use disorders, intensive residential treatment, independent living programs, housing and employment assistance, and outpatient case management. The organization takes a social rehabilitative approach to assisting people recovering from mental health and substance use disorders. 19 Currently, Bonita House, Inc.’s Creative Wellness Center (CWC) is funded by the City of Berkeley and serves as an entry point for recovery and supportive services for people with mental health needs and co-occurring conditions. Bonita House recently launched a Community Assessment and Transport Team (CATT) to serve as a crisis response system. This program is a joint effort among Alameda County Health Care Services Agency programs, 911 dispatch, the County Sheriff’s Office, and others. Through CATT, a a mental health provider and an Emergency Medical Technician will be available in a mobile transport unit to assist clients with a medical assessment along with transport to further services.
20 Bay Area Community Services (BACS)
Bay Area Community Services (BACS) was established in 1953 to elevate under-served individuals and families by supplying innovative behavioral health and housing assistance in northern California. BACS’ philosophy centers on a trauma-informed, person-centric approach.
21 The organization’s North County Housing Resource
Center (HRC) connects adults across Alameda County with housing opportunities. Services include housing navigation, financial assistance, legal workshops, and connections to additional resources. 22 The HRC is a part of
Berkeley’s Coordinated Entry System (CES), an initiative which aims to more effectively tackle homelessness.23 Another major program BACS administers is the Berkeley Pathways STAIR Center. The Berkeley Pathways STAIR Center is a re-housing program that assists individuals experiencing homelessness with transitioning into permanent housing in West Berkeley.
24 Open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, individuals at the STAIR Center are connected to case managers, supplied with meals and storage, and provided mental health services.
25 A critical component of the program is street outreach, in that outreach workers sustain 17 https:/ /www.self-sufficiency.org/supportsjcf
18 https:/ /www.self-sufficiency.org/housingnavigation
19 https:/ /bonitahouse.org/about-us/
20 https:/ /bonitahouse.org/catt/
21 http:/ /bayareacs.org/who-we-are/
22 http:/ /www.bayareacs.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/HS-Flyer-HRC-North-County.pdf 23 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/homeless-entry/
24 https:/ /alamedakids.org/resource-directory/view-program.php?id=1223 25 https:/ /chancellor.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/berkeleypathwaysinformation.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 21 a presence in Berkeley’s encampments and build relationships with their residents. During the first year of the STAIR Center, 170 individuals acquired a STAIR bed, with 101 clients exiting the shelter to permanent housing.
26 Berkeley Police Department Staffing & Budget Implications with Implementation of Tiered Dispatch & CERN
Implementation of the Community Emergency Response Network (CERN) Pilot:

According to BPD’s June 10, 2021 budget presentation to the City Council, the Department is currently holding $6.4 million in annual salary savings in 30 vacant positions (23 sworn/7 un-sworn) while the Reimagining Public Safety process plays out. These funds more than cover the costs of implementing a CERN pilot, which is estimated to cost $2.5 million.

Full Implementation of Tiered Dispatch and CERN:

BPD has 164 total sworn officers.27
According to a BPD presentation to the RPSTF, as of March 2021, there were 97 officers assigned to the Patrol Division, not including 16 reserve officers.
28 Based on NICJR’s assessment of Calls for Service (CFS), it was determined that 50% of CFS could be responsibly responded to by an alternative response program, like CERN. If fully implemented well, in stages to ensure safety and quality, Tiered Dispatch and CERN could result in a 50% reduction in the BPD’s Patrol Division.

Reduce BPD Patrol Division by 50%:
• Reducing the Patrol Division by 50% would equate to 49 officer positions. • We
suggest transferring 5 officers to the recommended Quality Assurance and Training Bureau under the new HALO initiative.
• We
suggest transferring another 5 officers to investigations to increase the solve rates of serious and violent crime.
• This
would leave 39 officer FTEs to eliminate.
• Cost per
officer: $245,656 annually
• St
ep 3 Median salary: $56.24 per hour x 2080 hrs (year of work) + 110% for benefits and other compensation (this fringe rate verified by City Administrator) • Does no
t include equipment costs (car, gun, computer, phone, protective equipment etc.) Savings:
• Eliminating 39 FTEs in the patrol division would generate an annual savings of $9,580,584. • These
dollars can be used to fund the CERN as well as increased investment in fundamental cause issues (education, housing, employment, drug treatment, mental health, etc). 26 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/2019/09_Sep/Documents/2019-09-24_Item_41_Pathways_STAIR_ Center__First_Year_Data_Evaluation.aspx
27 Quick Facts - City of Berkeley, CA
28 Berkeley Patrol Operations (cityofberkeley.info)

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 22 Time Frame:
• Reallocate funds from current vacant BPD positions to fund the CERN pilot and investment in community based servic
es as identified in the Reinvest section of this report. • 23 curren
t sworn vacancies x $245,656 = $5,650,08829
• Three CERN teams (which would serve one CERN district for 24 hours) have an estimated annual cost o
f $1.26 million (see Example CERN Budget in Appendix B) • The
proposed pilot includes 6 CERN teams (two districts, one team per shift for three shifts a day) for an estimated annual cost of $2.52 million
• BPD A
nnual attrition rate: 17 officers per year at annual savings of $4,176,152. • With
the annual attrition savings: Expand CERN each year by 6 CERN teams (doubling each district’s staff or dividing the city into three districts) at an estimated cost of $2.52 million and invest the remaining $1.65 million in community-based services.
•
Though
the final decision will have to be determined by the outcomes of the pilot, NICJR estimates a fully implemented CERN in Berkeley would have:
• 3 CERN
Districts: 2 teams per shift, per district for a total of 6 teams per shift across the 3 districts, for a total of 18 teams.
• 18 CERN teams = estima
ted cost of $7.59 million.
• Full implemen
tation can be achieved two years after the pilot is initiated. • Tw
o years of attrition equals 34 eliminated positions, 5 positions short of the full 39 identified as able to safely reduce from the Patrol Division. Revaluation after two years can determine the need for those 5 positions or move forward with elimination to increase investment in community-based services.

A Note about Violent Crime: (Update by BPD on 10/19/21) • In 2020, total Part One crime in Berkeley decreased by 11% overall. • Part
One Violent Crime decreased by 13% (81 crimes), and Part One Property Crimes decreased by 11% (738 crimes).
• In
the first six months of 2021, total Part One crime in Berkeley decreased by 12% overall compared to the same timeframe in the prior year. Part One Violent Crime decreased by 10% (29 crimes), and Part One Property Crimes decreased by 12% (362 crimes).
•
Homicides
increased from zero in 2019, to five murders in 2020. There were no homicides in the first six months of 2021.
• Robberies decr
eased by 26% with 274 incidents as compared to 369 in 2019. • In
the first half of 2021, robberies decreased by 1% with 148 incidents as compared to 150 in the same timeframe in 2020.
• Shoo
tings: There were 40 confirmed shooting incidents in 2020 versus 28 in 2019. There were 38 confirmed shooting incidents in the first nine months of 2021 versus 26 incidents in the same timeframe in 2020.
•
Con
firmed shooting incidents include loud report calls where shell casings or other evidence of gunfire is found. In 2019 and 2020, arrests were made in at least a third of these incidents. 29 Budget (cityofberkeley.info)

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 23 End Pretextual Stops
Pretextual or “pretext” traffic stops occur when police officers stop a driver for a minor violation, like vehicle equipment failure, and then try to leverage that opportunity to find evidence of a more significant crime, or when officers have made the stop on a low level violation assuming the driver or vehicle occupants are guilty of more serious offenses the officer is trying to find. A recent evaluation of 100 million traffic encounters demonstrated that Black and Latino drivers experience higher rates of pretextual stops and searches. 30 However, most of
these stops do not actually yield any contraband or weapons.31 Because the nature of pretextual stops relies heavily on officer discretion, there is a high likelihood that implicit racial biases come into play. Such stops that end in violence or death disproportionately affect Black and Latino drivers. 32 Despite public concern, elimination of pretextual stops does not increase crime rates. An analysis by the police department in Fayetteville, North Carolina showed that violent crime was not affected after the police department reformed its use of pretextual stops.
33 Pretextual stops are in the process of being regulated in many states across the country. Oregon’s Supreme Court ruled in November 2019 that it was unconstitutional for police to stop a driver and proceed to ask unrelated questions, thereby effectively banning pretextual stops. 34 Virginia policymakers recently passed a
bill restricting pretextual stops.35 Other legislation has been introduced across the country that prevents police officers from conducting certain types of pretextual stops including, for example, broken tail or brake lights, objects obstructing the rearview mirror, and tinted windows. 36 Advocates of these bills state the proposed
limitations would decrease racial incongruities in traffic stops.37 The Berkeley City Council has already approved the formation of BerkDOT in order to address and decrease the frequency of pretextual traffic stops. 38 The City Council also approved the recommendations of the Mayor’s Workgroup on Fair and Impartial Policing, which included the elimination of pretext stops.

BerkDOT
Another element of the George Floyd Act passed by the Berkeley City Council was to create the Berkeley Department of Transportation (BerkDOT), the purpose of which would be to enhance safety and mobility in Berkeley. Although California law does not currently allow for an alternative response to traffic stops, the vision for the new civilian-staffed BerkDOT combines the current Public Works Department’s above-ground street and sidewalk planning, maintenance, and engineering responsibilities and the current transportation- related BPD functions of parking enforcement, traffic law enforcement, school crossing guard management, and collision response, investigation, data collection, analysis, and reporting. 30 https:/ /www.vera.org/blog/ending-pretextual-stops-is-an-important-step-toward-racial-justice 31 https:/ /www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/7898-rudovskyoslj 32 https:/ /www.berkeleyside.org/2021/03/02/opinion-for-berkeley-to-reimagine-public-safety-we-must-grapple-with-traffic- enforcement
33 https:/ /injepijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40621-019-0227-6 34 https:/ /www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-supreme-court-bans-police-officers-random-questions/ 35 https:/ /lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+sum+HB5058 36 https:/ /theappeal.org/traffic-enforcement-without-police/ 37 https:/ /www.dailypress.com/news/crime/dp-nw-northam-legislation-traffic-20201021-3f2tmucyl5csdmbhhv2zh3atya-story.html 38 https:/ /www.berkeleyside.com/2021/03/02/opinion-for-berkeley-to-reimagine-public-safety-we-must-grapple-with-traffic- enforcement

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 24 IMPROVE
This section focuses on how BPD and the public safety system in Berkeley can improve its quality, increase its accountability, and become more transparent. NICJR recommends the following improvement strategies:
• Implemen
tation of HALO
• Cr
eation of Bay Area Progressive Police Academy
• Implemen
t additional police reform measures: Increase diversity of BPD leadership; Increase standards for Field Training Officers; and further amend the BPD Use of Force policy Highly Accountable Learning Organization
During community listening sessions with Black, LatinX, system-impacted, and unstably housed / food-insecure
residents there was a common perception amongst
participants that the BPD is racist and classist. They
expressed feeling targeted and unsafe with a militarized, aggressive approach to policing by BPD.
39 A Highly Accountable Learning Organization (HALO) is one that holds staff accountable and continues to learn and grow. A HALO police department is one where staff hold each other accountable, where management trains, coaches, and encourages staff and admonishes and disciplines when necessary. A HALO police department continually learns and improves its performance. It immediately responds to poor performance, critical incidents, and problematic staff with accountability, learning, training, and correction. A HALO police department provides significantly more training than the minimum required by the California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST).

NICJR recommends that the Berkeley Police Department become a Highly Accountable Learning Organization.

BPD’s HALO initiative would include the following:
•
Implemen
tation of a peer intervention program like EPIC and ABLE which train officers to intervene when they observe fellow officers engaged in inappropriate behavior. • In
line with recommendations from the Mayor’s Task Force on Fair and Impartial Policing which were adopted by the Council, BPD should implement or improve on the Early Intervention System (EIS).

The EIS should be designed to catch problematic officers early and provide appropriate training and correction or discipline and dismissal.
•
Cr
eation of Quality Assurance and Training Division: Significantly expand the current Training Unit and develop a Quality Assurance and Training Division that provides additional training, reviews body worn camera footage, and reviews critical incidents and complaints to develop officer and squad specific trainings.
•
Incr
ease Transparency: Provide regular reports to the public and increase the open data portal.

Ethical Policing Is Courageous (EPIC)
The EPIC program is a peer-to-peer intervention strategy that was created by the police department in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2016. EPIC involves training officers to be accountable to each other and to intervene before an unlawful act takes place, irrespective of hierarchy. This initiative aims to alter the culture surrounding policing in order to limit police misbehavior and promote a collaborative environment. 40 39 Page 38 of the Community engagement report
40 http:/ /epic.nola.gov/home/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 25 The EPIC program is founded on active bystandership psychology, which explains that active bystanders intercede when they are made aware of problematic behavior. EPIC training allows officers to overcome factors that may prevent them from intervening. These factors include a lack of confidence in their ability to deescalate a situation, uneasiness about potential retribution, and worry about breaking an unwritten code of silence.
41 Leadership in police departments who participate in the EPIC program must be committed to changing their organizational culture. Police departments implementing EPIC must provide education, training, and on-going learning and support to officers for the initiative to be successful. EPIC can also integrate with other initiatives to boost officer well-being, including counseling and trauma assistance as well as stress reduction education. 42 Data has shown that police departments where EPIC programs have been implemented have better community relations, lower rates of misconduct, and lower rates of public grievances. The majority of the feedback from New Orleans police officers has also been positive.
43 Moreover, there is strong research that peer intervention is effective when successful strategies for interceding are provided.44 Project Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project ABLE is a joint effort between the Georgetown Innovative Policing Program and the Sheppard Mullin law firm to train officers to be able to properly intervene in a crisis situation and promote a policing atmosphere that reinforces peer intervention. Project ABLE is based on the principles of the New Orleans EPIC Peer Intervention Program and curriculum created by Dr. Ervin Staub for California law enforcement.

Through Georgetown, law enforcement agencies are able to receive training in Project ABLE along with a host of other resources to assist them in advancing their own bystandership strategies. 45 46 The training consists
of a minimum of a one-time, eight hour ABLE-specific training along with a minimum of two hours of annual refresher training.
47 All of these resources are provided to law enforcement agencies free of charge.

Project ABLE’s aim is to reduce police misconduct and errors and assist in improving officer health and well- being. In order to prevent any retaliation from occurring to those officers who intervene, police departments must implement stringent anti-retaliation guidelines. Since its inception, over 70 police departments have enlisted in Project ABLE.
48 Research has shown that there are many advantages to the implementation of significant bystander training.

This is critical because most police departments have a culture that dissuades officers from intervening when they see problematic behaviors.
49 Identified benefits include a decrease in violence to civilians, a decrease in violence to police officers, enhanced relationships between community residents and the police officers, and growth in officer well-being.
50 Evidence also suggests a strong correlation between departments that maintain robust duty to intervene protocols and decreased rates of police deaths per capita.

BPD should join the ABLE program to receive training and technical assistance and use the new Quality Assurance and Training Bureau discussed below to ensure the department adheres to the training, principles, and practices of the program.
41 http:/ /epic.nola.gov/epic/media/Assets/EPIC-Overview.pdf 42 Id.
43 https:/ /www.apa.org/monitor/2017/10/police-misconduct 44 https:/ /epic.nola.gov/epic/media/Assets/Aronie-Lopez,-Keeping-Each-Other-Safe.pdf 45 https:/ /www.law.georgetown.edu/cics/able/
46 https:/ /www.law.georgetown.edu/innovative-policing-program/active-bystandership-for-law-enforcement/our-mission/ 47 https:/ /www.law.georgetown.edu/innovative-policing-program/active-bystandership-for-law-enforcement/able-program-standards/ 48 https:/ /www.wsj.com/articles/nypd-officers-to-get-training-on-speaking-up-against-bad-policing-11611838809 49 https:/ /assets.foleon.com/eu-west-2/uploads-7e3kk3/41697/pdf_-_duty_to_intervene.6e39a04b07b6.pdf 50 https:/ /www.law.georgetown.edu/innovative-policing-program/active-bystandership-for-law-enforcement/able-program-standards/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 26 Early Intervention System
Early intervention systems (EIS) — also known as Early Warning System (EWS) or Early Warning and Intervention System (EWIS) — can be thought of as a personnel management or risk management tool designed to identify potential problematic behavior that puts the individual, organization, and/or community at risk. These systems consolidate a variety of data as well as indicators to analyze for potentially problematic behavior as early as possible. Indicators include but are not limited to: use of force incidents; citizen complaints; and disciplinary history. Identification of habitual misconduct by officers is often accomplished through a “peer officer comparison system” where officers assigned to the same beat are juxtaposed. 51 Once an officer is identified by
the EIS for habitual misconduct, training, supports, and services to aid the officer are provided to encourage officer wellbeing and aid in behavioral change that is consistent with organizational and community goals.

Continued monitoring of officer progress, as well as frequent reviews of EIS data, is necessary for successful implementation.
52 The collection and analysis of aggregate data within EIS is also recommended to be utilized to identify problem areas within teams, units, departments, or entire organizations.

Examples of areas that EIS commonly tracks are:

Performance category Possible considerations
Arrests, especially excessive
‘discretionary’ arrests
May signify underlying bias of officer or over-zealousness; or could be due to agency reinforcement of arrests as a “good statistic” (therefore an agency-level problem)
Traffic Stops May highlight concern over bias if indicative of profiling, may be due to agency reinforcement of arrests as a “good statistic” (therefore an agency- level problem)
Use of force by type (e.g.,
baton, pepper spray, gun, etc.

Limited use of less lethal may indicate underlying fear or lack of confidence in ability to resolve encounters with a minimal amount of force. May uncover bias, overly aggressive tendencies, lack of verbal ability, lack of skill or training in de-escalation.

In February 2021, the Mayor’s Task Force on Fair and Impartial Policing recommended the implementation of an EIS and outlined the following seven areas in which the EIS should focus:

1. Ev
aluate and assess stop incidents for legality and enforcement yield.

2. Analyz
e data to determine whether racial disparities are generalized across the force or are concentrated in a smaller subset of outlier officers or squads/groups of officers. To the extent that the problem is generalized across the department, supervisors as well as line officers should be re-trained and monitored, and department recruitment, training, and structure should be reviewed. In addition, department policy should be examined for their impacts.

3. Wher
e disparities are concentrated in an individual or a group of officers, with no race-neutral legitimate evidence for this behavior in specific cases, initiate an investigation to determine the cause for the disparity.

Evaluate whether there are identifiable causes contributing to racially disparate stop rates and high or low rates of resulting enforcement actions exhibited by outlying officers. Determine and address any trends and patterns among officers with disparate stop rates In the risk management process, the responsible 51 https:/ /samuelwalker.net/issues/early-intervention-systems/ 52 https:/ /www.policefoundation.org/publication/best-practices-in-early-intervention-system-implementation-and-use-in-law- enforcement-agencies/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 27 personnel in the chain of command reviews and discusses the available information about the subject officer and the officer’s current behavior.

4. Absen
t a satisfactory explanation for racially disparate behavior, monitor the officer. Options for the supervisor in these cases include reviewing additional body-worn camera footage, supervisor ride-alongs, and other forms of monitoring. Further escalation to intervention, if necessary, may include a higher form of supervision, with even closer oversight. If performance fails to improve, command should consider other options including breaking up departmental units, transfer of officers to other responsibilities, etc.

The goal of this process is to achieve trust and better community relations between the department as a whole and all the people in Berkeley. Formal discipline is always a last resort unless there are violations of Department General Orders, in which case this becomes an IAB matter.

5. Iden
tify officers who may have problems affecting their ability to make appropriate judgments, and monitor and reduce time pressures, stress and fatigue on officers.

6. An
outside observer from the PRC shall sit in on the risk management and/or EIS program. Reports from these meetings, or other accurate statistical summary, can be given to the commission without identifying any officers’ names.

7. Report the r
esults of this data analysis quarterly.

In response to the Fair and Impartial Policing recommendations, BPD has indicated it is implementing an EIS for traffic, bike, and pedestrian stops, which is a very good start. NICJR recommends that the EIS should also be expanded to assess all Use of Force incidents, complaints, and information gleaned from the Body Worn Camera (BWC) footage reviewed by the Quality Assurance and Training Bureau described below.

Quality Assurance and Training Bureau
In order for BPD to become and maintain a Highly Accountable Learning Organization, it must have an internal accountability and continual improvement process and structure. To this end, as a part of the HALO initiative, NICJR recommends that BPD either expand its current Personnel and Training Bureau or create a new Quality Assurance and Training (QAT) Bureau. The QAT Bureau would be responsible for supporting officers and personnel throughout the Department to maintain and increase high standards and professionalism, as well as quickly detect and correct any patterns of misconduct.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 28 The QAT Bureau should examine every complaint filed, every Use of Force, and regularly examine BWC footage to assess where individual officers, squads, and the entire Department need additional training, specialized training, and coaching, to address the specific deficiency discovered through the complaint, incident, or pattern observed.

Unlike current operations, if the QAT Bureau observed discourteous treatment by an officer, they would be authorized and required to pull that officer into a special training and/or coaching session. The QAT Bureau would then review the BWC footage of officers in that squad to determine if there was an issue with the entire squad and sergeant.

The QAT Bureau would also increase the number and quality of trainings currently offered in the Department.

POST, which oversees mandated training of officers in California, only requires 40 hours of training per year, but local departments can go beyond that minimum. Under the HALO initiative, BPD officers should receive far more training than the minimum POST requirements. In addition to more training, the QAT unit would provide not just one-size fits all training to a group of officers, but specifically tailored training to individual officers and squads based on their needed improvements or after critical incidents.

BPD has conducted a number of good trainings for its officers and non-sworn staff, including: Fair and Impartial Policing; Principled Policing; Bias Based; Communication-Keeping Your Edge; and Implicit Bias (a full listing of the trainings BPD provided to NICJR is in Appendix D). Based on the information BPD provided, there has not been a single Fair and Impartial Policing training in five and a half years, and not one held for all officers for the past seven.

Increased training and education programs are frequently promoted to police departments to help improve the quality of policing and support officers in gaining new skills. As noted by two Columbia Law School professors in an article on police reform, “... training does not take root unless officers are held accountable for obeying the rules and practicing the skills they are taught.” 53 Training alone is not adequate to transform a
police department or change the behavior of an officer. But combined with culture change, new policies and accountability, training can be an effective tool to improve and reform the police. 54 One of the trainings BPD should add for all officers is a full day Procedural Justice course. According to the Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services, “Procedural justice refers to the idea of fairness in the processes that resolve disputes and allocate resources. It is a concept that, when embraced, promotes positive organizational change and bolsters better relationships.” 55 A comprehensive evaluation of procedural justice trainings found that “training increased officer support for all of the procedural justice dimensions. Post-training, officers were more likely to endorse the importance of giving citizens a voice, granting them dignity and respect, demonstrating neutrality, and (with the least enthusiasm) trusting them to do the right thing.”
56 Several evaluations of procedural justice have found the education has been correlated with an improvement in relations between a community and a police department. In Oakland, CA, the police department trained all officers in procedural justice and provided specialized procedural justice training to the department’s gun violence reduction unit. Oakland’s police department was also the first department in the country to have members of the community teach a portion of the procedural justice training. BPD should increase its use of local community members providing training to officers.

To implement the QAT Bureau, NICJR recommends that BPD transfer five officers from the patrol division and two civilian staff into what is now the Personnel and Training Bureau and rename it the Quality Assurance 53 https:/ /www.themarshallproject.org/2014/12/19/the-new-new-policing 54 https:/ /nicjr.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GeneralNewAndEmergingReport.pdf 55 https:/ /cops.usdoj.gov/prodceduraljustice
56 https:/ /www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/publications/training-police-for-procedural-justice

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 29 and Training Bureau and amend the duties
of those officers to achieve the above goals.

With the implementation of the Tiered
Dispatch model, the patrol division will have
significantly less work load and officers can
be reassigned to other duties, like the QAT
Bureau.

Increased training hours will require
negotiation with the union and the City
Manager’s Office will have to engage with
the Meet and Confer process to implement
these changes.

Greater Transparency
The issues of accountability and transparency
in policing are intertwined and efforts to address each often include both. There are, however, specific efforts that work to daylight information about departmental activities as well as individual officers’ behaviors for the purposes of identifying patterns and problems.

BPD should provide semi-annual reports to the public on stops, arrests, complaints, and uses of force, including totals, by race and gender, by area of the city, and other aggregate outcomes.

The Oakland Police Department (OPD) recently implemented a series of Microsoft Power BI (Business Intelligence) dashboards that allow for a precise review of police behavior. Working with Slalom, a data consulting firm, OPD has increased transparency and accountability through data analysis. Patterns of enforcement, historical activity, and performance over time are all monitored in close to real-time. 57 The dashboards were created with input from OPD staff and leadership, community based organizations, other law enforcement agencies, and Stanford University’s SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real- world Questions). Each dashboard can be accessed by OPD leadership, depending on security clearance. The dashboards have a simple interface, allowing supervisors to access and understand the data easily. Police supervisors can access a variety of data, from long-term information to arrests made within the last twenty- four hours.
58 Dashboards allow for an easy breakdown of incidents by factors including race, gender, ethnicity, and officer. This permits police departments to monitor problematic patterns and address them quickly.59 One necessary improvement with these systems is allowing the public access to the information.

Bay Area Progressive Police Academy
The following section of this report provides detailed research, components, and recommendations to support the development of a Bay Area Progressive Police Academy (BAPPA) to address what has been identified as a significant and stark mismatch between the primary reasons for calls for service and the training that officers receive to appropriately respond to those calls.

A progressive training program like BAPPA understands, values, and reinforces through the appropriate proportion of skill building and practice that first and foremost an officer must create a positive relationship with the community and that relationships are built on communication and personal interaction. BAPPA instructors would teach using guidance, coaching, and feedback, rather than humiliation or demands for 57 https:/ /www.slalom.com/case-studies/city-oakland-creating-police-transparency-and-trust-data 58 https:/ /medium.com/slalom-data-analytics/data-is-the-new-sheriff-in-town-but-is-it-biased-4aa140904dd7 59 https:/ /cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Police-Commission-7.23.20-Agenda-Packet.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 30 compliance. The approach emphasizes critical thinking, active and engaged learning, and thoughtful, informed, and quick analysis. It also prioritizes a strong understanding of human behavior including behaviors exhibited by individuals experiencing high degrees of stress, shock, trauma, or in more extreme circumstances, a mental health crisis, and integrates real-life scenarios and debriefs that teach which responses are likely to escalate or de-escalate a situation.

The BAPPA structure would be centered on adult learning models and focus on the demonstrated acquisition and application of well-practiced skill as opposed to rote memorization. The content of the curriculum will include honest discussions about civil rights, the Constitution, what it means to connect to, uphold, and exhibit the values inherent in a community guardian, and to serve a community in which you are responding to highly vulnerable, rather than just potentially threatening people. The program’s focus is to hold both officer safety and public trust in equal proportions -- not in competition or as mutually exclusive.

Although activists’ concerns and complaints dominate the headlines, when asked to reflect on the relevance and utility of their academy experience, much of the criticism has come from officers themselves. 60 61 Police
administrators have also expressed that they do not believe that police academy training is sufficient in preparing officers for the reality of the work they are asked to do. 62 The general disconnect between academy training and job preparation tends to revolve around two interrelated topics concerning the content and delivery of academy curriculum: 1) the typical paramilitary format fails to prepare recruits to work in a manner consistent with the community-oriented police services model; and 2) it is delivered in a manner that is inconsistent with basic principles of adult-learning theory and styles.

Essentially, in order to produce officers who are able to successfully perform community-oriented policing techniques (e.g., proactive collaboration with community members), police academies must train recruits to be independent, creative problem solvers who are connected to the human impact of their decisions and see their role as a guardian, not a warrior.
63 According to a resolution authored by Berkeley City Councilmember Ben Bartlett and co-sponsored by Mayor Jesse Arreguin in June 2020:
“Berkeley Police Department recruits currently train at the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office Academy Training Center, Sacramento Police Academy, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Justice Training Center, and Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Academy Training Center. Unfortunately, these facilities are paramilitary in structure, potentially instilling the warrior mentality that forces a divide between law enforcement and the public and promotes fear. Additionally, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office’s history of using military technology, deploying armored vehicles, equipping deputies with automatic rifles, and support for Urban Shield casts doubt on the ability of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Regional Training Center in Dublin to train cadets in a progressive, non-paramilitary manner.” The resolution goes on to say:
“Rooting out the paramilitary aspect of policing begins with transforming police training. It necessitates equipping officers with practical and effective decision-making methods that prioritize de-escalation and reserve use of force as a last resort. It necessitates teaching police officers that they have the power and the choice to perpetuate or defeat injustice. It necessitates engaging officers with the history of their profession and challenging their socioeconomic and racial biases.” 64 60 https:/ /www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13639519810206600/full/html 61 https:/ /psycnet.apa.org/record/1987-29889-001
62 https:/ /heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/injposcim4&div=25&id=&page= 63 https:/ /www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6950698/#B2-ijerph-16-04941 64 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Clerk/Progressive%20Police%20Academy%20June%202020.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 31 Unfortunately, the approach in which
most police academies continue to be
conducted is in a paramilitary fashion.

This means that recruits are held
to a high standard of discipline and
regimentation seemingly for discipline
and regimentation sake. They utilize the
mentality of a warrior going to battle
and view the police force as being an
occupying army. This approach has been
referred to as the “warrior mentality”
for many years. Instilled or reinforced
in police officers at the academy, the
warrior concept is saturated throughout
police culture. Another, more insidious
problem in a military-style academy is the
behavior modeled by academy staff. Those without power (recruits) submit without question to the authority of those who have power (academy staff). In this way, academy training staff are often indistinguishable from military drill sergeants, who verbally harass and even demean recruits who are not measuring up. 65 Pushups,
extra running, and writing reports are used as punishment for failure to demonstrate skills and/or properly follow directions. Although this type of approach can sometimes build camaraderie, it has not been shown to effectively build recruits’ skill. There are, however, many other ways to build camaraderie while achieving the primary goal of improving the recruit’s skill and ability to do their job. What the paramilitary model has been shown to do is contribute to a fairly high dropout rate. This is especially true in organizations that have implemented newer hiring practices that recruit more mature individuals, with advanced degrees and whose education, training, and life experience has taught them to ask questions, critically analyze, debate, and discuss rather than just follow orders. Which means that the paramilitary training model results in high drop-out or failure rates amongst the very recruits departments are attempting to attract and retain.

The contrast to the warrior mentality is the guardian mentality, which promotes community engagement, the establishment of meaningful relationships, and providing support to residents. The notion of being a guardian or protector of the public is a noble one, one in which trust and respect can replace fear and intimidation.

If police agencies are committed to hiring officers who will do things differently and exemplify the guardian qualities, they must create agencies that exhibit those same qualities and train recruits in a manner that reinforces them.

NICJR recommends that the preceding information be used to develop a Bay Area Progressive Police Academy built on adult learning concepts and focused on helping recruits develop the psychological skills and values necessary to perform their complex and stressful jobs in a manner that reflects the guardian mentality. In order to leverage resources as well as build a regional approach, BAPPA is proposed as a partnership between area cities that may have similar goals to transform their police departments, which may include: Berkeley, Albany, and potentially Oakland.
65 Couper, D.C., Arrested Development: A Veteran Police Chief Sounds Off About Protest, Racism, Corruption and the Seven Steps Necessary to Improve Our Nation’s Police, Indianapolis, Indiana: Dog Ear Publishing, 2011.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 32 Other Police Reform Measures:

Increase Diversity of BPD Leadership
Overall, BPD has a relatively diverse sworn staff as it relates to Berkeley’s demographics in terms of race and ethnicity. But there is a significant disparity in gender, with males making up 86 percent of sworn staff. BPD also only tracks gender as male or female; this should be changed. Another concern is that, of the 13 executive staff in the Department (Lieutenants/Captains/Chief), nine are white, three are Asian, one is Black, and none are Latinx (a chart of BPD personnel by race and rank is in Appendix E). Intentional focus on increasing the racial and gender diversity of BPD line staff and leadership will be important in the near term.

Increase Standards for Field Training Officers
The Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd was a Field Training Officer (FTO) despite having 13 previous complaints leveled against him and he was involved in three previous shootings.

BPD should amend its policy to disallow any officer from becoming a Field Training Officer who has either more than two complaints or any one sustained complaint in any 12 month period.

Further Amend the BPD Use of Force Policy
NICJR recommends that BPD’s Use of Force policies be revised to limit any use of deadly force as a last resort to situations where a suspect is clearly armed with a deadly weapon and is using or threatening to use the deadly weapon against another person. All other force must be absolutely necessary and proportional.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 33 REINVEST
Berkeley is an affluent city with resources, one of the most well regarded academic institutions in the country, and a progressive electorate that supports social programs. Unfortunately, this combination of assets has not resulted in appropriate and sustained investment in the most vulnerable populations in the city.

The City of Berkeley must increase its investment in communities, families, and individuals who: live in poverty, are unhoused, are unemployed, are underemployed, have mental health challenges, and/or have substance abuse challenges. Particular attention to racial and ethnic intersectionality with respect to these socio-economic demographic characteristics is critically important (especially in relation to Black and Latinx communities). The Community Engagement Report, Appendix J, includes a wealth of input and ideas for investment from many of Berkeley’s most vulnerable populations. The information contained in this report can serve an ongoing benefit in addressing the needs of the community and its unique diversity.

When the Tiered Dispatch/CERN model is fully implemented, up to 50 percent of calls for service in the City can be diverted to a non-police response, allowing for BPD staffing to be responsibly and safely reduced and the Department’s budget to be significantly reallocated.

Even before the BPD budget can be reduced and reallocated, the City should use General Fund dollars and other revenue sources to increase investment in “fundamental cause” drivers of trauma, crime, and violence.

These fundamental causes include, but are not limited to:
•
Po
verty
• Homelessness
• Educa
tion
• Substanc
e Abuse
• Unemplo
yment and underemployment
NICJR recommends that the City take the following measures to increase investment in vulnerable communities and fundamental cause issues:
•
Launch a
Guaranteed Income program to provide monthly stipends to individuals and families living under the poverty level
• Launch a Community
Beautification Employment Program
• Incr
ease Funding for Community Based Organizations
Guaranteed Income
The poverty rates from the national to the local level show deepening poverty levels as we get closer to home.

In 2019, the national poverty rate was 10.5 percent and in California it was 11.8 percent. 66 Drilling down, we
find that Alameda County’s poverty rate was 14.1 percent and that Berkeley’s was 19.2 percent.67 The 2019 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that nearly 36 percent of Black and 24 percent of Latino residents live below the poverty line, compared to only 12 percent of white residents. 68 Consistent with those findings, immigrant Californians experienced a poverty rate of 21.6 percent, compared to 14.4 percent for non-immigrants, and poverty among undocumented immigrants was 35.7 percent. More 66 https:/ /www.statista.com/statistics/205434/poverty-rate-in-california/ 67 https:/ /www.census.gov/quickfacts/berkeleycitycalifornia 68 https:/ /www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 34 than one in five (21.4 percent) Latinos lived in poverty, compared to 17.4 percent of African Americans, 14.5 percent of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and 12.1 percent of whites.69 While Guaranteed Income or Universal Basic Income (UBI) programs have recently become popular in the United States, the state of Alaska has a program that provides regular unconditional payments to residents.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Casino Dividend in North Carolina has given every tribal member between $4,000 and $6,000 per year since 1997. Studies of both efforts have shown a reduction in crime associated with the unconditional cash payments. These findings have been replicated in international studies, including one in Namibia which showed a direct correlation between UBI and crime reduction. There are smaller pilot efforts currently underway in the United States. Oakland recently launched a Guaranteed Income program and San Francisco is starting in 2022. In Jackson, Mississippi, Springboard to Opportunities and the Magnolia Mothers Trust are giving $1,000 per month to Black mothers.

In Stockton, California, 125 residents have been receiving $500 per month, since February 2019. Former Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs launched the initiative in the city and championed several Mayors from across the country in coming together to pledge to launch UBI initiatives in their cities through Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. A preliminary study of the Guaranteed Income program in Stockton found several positive outcomes, including that recipients were “healthier, showing less depression and anxiety and enhanced well-being.” 70 Berkeley should launch a Guaranteed Income pilot program similar to other cities in the region. The pilot program should select a subpopulation of 200 Black and Latinx families that have children under 10 years of age and have household incomes below $50,000. These families should be provided a monthly stipend of $750 at an annual cost to the City of $1.8 million, a sum that can be taken from: the General Fund; federal funding already received or forthcoming, or the soon to be passed Infrastructure Bill; or raised through philanthropy akin to the approach in other cities.

Community Beautification Employment Program
NICJR recommends that the City launch a crew-based employment program, or expand an existing program that employs formerly incarcerated and unhoused people to help beautify their own neighborhood. Hire and train no less than 100 formerly incarcerated and unhoused Berkeley residents to conduct Community Beautification services, including: blight abatement, tree planting, plant and maintain community gardens, make and track 311 service requests, and other community beautification projects.” has been changed to 69 https:/ /www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
70 SEED_Preliminary+Analysis-SEEDs+First+Year_Final+Report_Individual+Pages+.pdf (squarespace.com)

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 35 “blight abatement, tree planting, planting and maintenance of community gardens, making and tracking 311 service requests, and other community beautification projects.

There are many Berkeley and Bay Area CBOs that are capable of implementing this program, including the Center for Employment Opportunity (CEO) that operates a crew-based employment program for people on probation in Alameda County or BOSS, which has also provided similar services. However, this program would be focused on beautifying Berkeley neighborhoods and employing Berkeley residents.

A recent study showed that community beautification efforts in Philadelphia had a direct impact in reducing violence in those neighborhoods.
71 Under AB 109 Criminal Justice Realignment, each year Alameda County receives an allotment of funds from the state to serve adults in the community who are under probation supervision and for other related operations.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors has mandated that half of those funds be allocated to community based services. In fiscal year 2019-2020, Alameda County received more than $50 million in Realignment funds from the state, with $25 million of it dispersed to community services. 72 According to Alameda County Probation Department data, five percent of probation caseloads are from Berkeley. Of the annual $25 million in Realignment funds allocated to community services each year, 5%, or $1.25 million, should be spent on Berkeley residents. CEO also provides a crew based employment program in Oakland, which serves 80 people at an annual cost of $345,000. If Berkeley receives its fair share of Realignment funding, it would more than cover the cost of the Community Beautification Employment program.

Increase Funding to Community Based Organizations
CBOs that provide services to those who are unhoused, live in poverty, have mental health challenges, have substance abuse challenges, are system-involved, and/or are LGBTQ should receive an increase in funding using Reinvest dollars. A list of Berkeley CBOs that provide such services are included as Appendix F.

For FY 2022, the City of Berkeley plans to spend $20,484,394 to support CBOs; this allocation level represents a 22 percent decrease from the $26,311,113 amount allocated to these organizations in FY 2021. 73 At the same
time, BPD’s FY 2022 budget saw an increase, from $65,460,524 (adopted FY21) to $73,228,172 (proposed FY22), an 11.9 percent increase.
74 Increased funding can come from Measure W funds (described below); when the BPD’s budget is gradually reduced; the soon to be passed Infrastructure Bill; and concerted efforts to increase philanthropic dollars.

Many Foundations, locally and nationally, are interested and have funded Reimagine Public Safety efforts. If the City of Berkeley adopts the innovative measures in this report and through other efforts being developed from the George Floyd Act, it will attract greater investment from philanthropy.

The City of Berkeley should increase funding to CBOs in one of two ways:
•
An acr
oss the board 25% increase of grant amounts to currently funded CBOs • Cr
eate a local government agency to be the centralized point of coordination, such as a Department of Community Development to develop a detailed plan to increase the investment in local CBOs that provide services to address fundamental cause issues. 71 Citywide cluster randomized trial to restore blighted vacant land and its effects on violence, crime, and fear | PNAS 72 http:/ /www.acgov.org/board/bos_calendar/documents/DocsAgendaReg_12_12_19/PUBLIC%20PROTECTION/Regular%20 Calendar/item_3_AB_109_rpt_12_12_19.pdf
73 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Manager/Budget/cob-proposed-budget-fy2022.pdf 74 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Manager/Budget/cob-proposed-budget-fy2022.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 36 In Oakland, the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force recommended a $20 million increase in funding to CBOs to be distributed through the Department of Violence Prevention. In response, the City Council allocated $17 million to DVP and required the Department to develop a plan on how to disperse the funds to local CBOs.

Berkeley could do something similar through the creation of the Department of Community Development.

Measure W
In November of 2020 Alameda County voters passed Measure W, a sales tax measure that is anticipated to generate $150 million per year to provide housing and services for the unhoused. The funds are to be distributed geographically based on the number and percentage of unhoused individuals in each jurisdiction.

The measure will establish a half percent (0.5%) sales tax increase for 10 years to provide essential County services such as housing, mental health services, job training, and other social safety services. Funded housing programs will include rapid rehousing, ongoing rental subsidies, expanded emergency shelters, and permanent supportive housing in certain cases.

As of 2019, there were approximately 1,108 unhoused people living in Berkeley, constituting 13.8 percent of Alameda County’s unhoused population.
75 Berkeley should therefore expect to receive 13.8 percent of the $150 million annually, which amounts to $20.7 million for housing and other social services. The measure contemplates annual audits and citizen oversight, program components that Berkeley residents can leverage to ensure adequate spending and care is provided to unhoused people and people experiencing mental health crises in Berkeley in addition to ensuring safe, secure housing. 75 Berkeley+Homeless+Count+2019.pdf (squarespace.com)

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 37 Implement Advance Peace Program
Berkeley has a relatively low rate of gun violence, but has experienced an increase in the past year. As of December 9, 2021, Berkeley has had 48 confirmed calls regarding gunfire compared to the same time last year when 39 calls were recorded

76. This represents an increase of approximately 23 percent. When compared with the numbers from 2019 (28 incidents of confirmed gun violence), the increase is further magnified resulting in a 71 percent increase. NICJR recommends the City implement the renowned Advance Peace program.

Advance Peace is a nonprofit organization that focuses on achieving tangible reductions in cyclical and retaliatory firearm-related assaults and deaths. The organization was formed in response to an analysis done by the City Council in Richmond, CA that found gun violence disproportionately affected Black men aged 18-24, with that population constituting 73 percent of homicide fatalities. 77 This goal is achieved through the
implementation of strategic partnerships and interventions that strengthen neighborhood ties and promote community welfare. Advance Peace works to provide resources including life skills training and mentoring to individuals who are at greatest risk of being involved in gun violence.

Leveraging their relationships in the community, Advance Peace staff known as Neighborhood Change Agents (NCAs) conduct daily sweeps of their communities, an effort that provides a continuous flow of critical information that informs staff response. Advance Peace’s main program is the Peacemaker Fellowship, which provides transformational opportunities to young men involved in lethal firearm offenses by placing them in a high-touch, personalized fellowship. The Fellowship provides life coaching, mentoring, connection to needed services, and cultural and educational excursions to those deemed to be the very most dangerous individuals in the city. Fellows can also receive significant financial incentives for participation and positive behavior as a gateway to developing intrinsic motivation. Since the establishment of the ONS, firearm-related homicides have declined in Richmond by more than 70 percent. For individuals enrolled in the Peacemaker Fellowship, 77 percent have not been involved in any gun violence activity. 78 The Peacemaker Fellowship has been replicated
in the cities of Stockton and Sacramento, CA, with promising outcomes.79 Implementation of the Advance Peace program will cost the City approximately $500,000 per year. 76 https:/ /www.berkeleyside.org/2021/05/22/2021-berkeley-gunfire-map 77 https:/ /www.evidentchange.org/sites/default/files/publication_pdf/ons-process-evaluation.pdf 78 https:/ /www.advancepeace.org/about/the-solution/
79 https:/ /www.advancepeace.org/about/learning-evaluation-impact/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 38 CONCLUSION
NICJR is proud to present this Final Report and Implementation Plan to the Mayor, City Council, City Manager and the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force.

The research and experience of NICJR and its partners; the feedback and input from the Task Force and City staff; and the engagement with and input from the community all culminated in the innovative ideas presented in this Final Report. This report and our recommendations provide a blueprint to move toward a public safety model that is community centered. As police reform efforts move forward, the City will have greater resources and additional information on continuing the process of mental health specialists and CBOs taking leadership of responding to the needs of the communities most impacted by the inequities in the current system and provide the necessary supportive resources for those in greatest need.

Through implementing the recommendations in this report and the other parallel processes (SCU, BerkDOT, etc), the City of Berkeley is poised to transform its public safety system, improve the outcomes of Berkeley residents, and become a national model for other cities to emulate.

By safely and responsibly reducing the footprint of law enforcement in Berkeley, vastly improving the quality of policing, and significantly increasing investment into community based services, Berkeley will have truly reimagined public safety.

NICJR would like to thank its partners: Bright Research Group, Pastor Michael Smith, Renne Public Law Group, and Jorge Camacho of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School. NICJR would also like to thank the Task Force, a group of passionate and committed volunteers who spent many hours working to make Berkeley a better city for all its residents. Lastly, NICJR thanks and appreciates all the members of the community who participated in a listening session, completed the survey, attended a community meeting, or in any way participated in this process.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 39 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
REDUCE
Recommendation Estimated Cost Funding Source Timeline
Establishment of a Tiered Dispatch/CERN
Pilot Program.
$2,532,000, plus some costs
associated with training for
Dispatch.

Current BPD vacant
positions.

Issue RFP 30 days
after City Council
approval, select
vendors 90-120 days
afterward, and begin
pilot six months after
City Council approval.

Contracting with local Community-Based
Organizations (CBOs).

Full Implementation of Tiered Dispatch/
CERN Pilot Program and reduction of
BPD patrol division of 50%.
$7,596,000 Reduction of BPD
Patrol Division by 50%.

Two years after
implementation of
the pilot initiative.

IMPROVE
Recommendation Cost Funding Source Timeline
Berkeley Police Department should
become a Highly Accountable Learning
Organization (HALO).

Joining ABLE is free of cost. N/A Within six months of
approval from City
Council.

Expand the Early Intervention System
to assess all Use of Force incidents,
complaints, and information gleaned from
the Body Worn Camera (BWC) footage
reviewed by the Quality Assurance and
Training Bureau.

No additional costs. N/A Within six months of
approval from City
Council.

Transfer five officers from the patrol
division and two civilian staff into what is
now the Personnel and Training Bureau.

Rename it the Quality Assurance and
Training Bureau and amend the duties of
those officers to achieve the above goals.

No additional costs. N/A Within six months of
approval from City
Council.

BPD should provide semi-annual reports
to the public on stops, arrests, complaints,
and uses of force, including totals, by race
and gender, by area of the city, and other
aggregate outcomes.

Internal re-organization can
achieve this goal without
additional costs.

N/A First report should be
issued July 1, 2022.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 40 Develop a Bay Area Progressive Police
Academy (BAPPA).

An analysis of police
academies throughout the
Bay Area found that the
cost per student range is
roughly $4,300 - $4,600 per
student, with a significant
proportion of costs eligible
for reimbursement through
the Commission on Peace
Officers Standards and
Training (POST.) The
development of the BAPPA
would include certification
through POST in order to
satisfy State requirements.

NICJR recommends that
collaboration with Albany
and potentially Oakland be
explored.

Reduced BPD budget
through eliminating
patrol positions
through attrition,
revenue from partner
law enforcement
agencies.

Launch two years
after City Council
approval.

Revise BPD’s Use of Force policies to limit
any use of deadly force as a last resort
to situations where a suspect is clearly
armed with a deadly weapon and is using
or threatening to use the deadly weapon
against another person.

Training costs. Savings from
eliminating patrol
positions through
attrition.

Within six months of
approval from City
Council.

REINVEST
Recommendation Cost Funding Source Timeline
Launch a Guaranteed Income pilot
program.
$1,800,000 General Fund;
federal funding
already received or
forthcoming, from
the Infrastructure
Bill; or raised through
philanthropy akin to
the approach in other
cities.

Launch within six
months of approval
from City Council.

Launch a Community Beautification
Employment Program.
$1,250,000 5% of County Criminal
Justice Realignment
funds allocated to
community services for
Berkeley residents.

Launch one year after
approval from City
Council.

Increase Funding for Community-Based
Organizations.
$25,605,492.50 Measure W funds,
when the BPD’s budget
is gradually reduced;
the Infrastructure
Bill; and concerted
efforts to increase
philanthropic dollars.

FY 22-23.

Launch the Advance Peace Program $500,000 General fund Launch in first quarter of FY 2023,
on going for at least
three years.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 41 APPENDICES
A. Overview of Duties for CERN Positions
B. Example Annual CERN T eam Budget
C. Tiered Dispatch/CERN Pilot Calls for Service Summaries D. FIP and Related Course Training History
E. FY 2020 Year End Workforce Report
F. Community Based Organizations and Nonprofits Providing Services in Berkeley G. New and Emerging Models of Community Safety and Policing Report H. Berkeley Calls for Service Analysis
I. Alternative Responses Report
J. Community Engagement Report

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 42 APPENDIX A
Community Intervention
Specialist Position
Overview
42

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 43 A Community Intervention Specialist (CIS) responds
to non-criminal and low level 911 and other Calls for
Service (CFS) in Berkeley as a part of the Community
Emergency Response Network (CERN). CISs
help to address, mediate, and resolve challenges,
emergencies, conflicts, and other causes for CFS.

CISs will respond to a wide array of calls and situations and must engage the community in a thoughtful,
patient, serious and compassionate manner.

Although the work of a CIS will evolve as the CERN
develops and will always be dynamic and fluid, the
following are the general duties of a CIS:
•
Respond
to emergency and non-emergency calls
for services in Berkeley and attempt to resolve
the problem, like noise complaints and neighbor
disputes.
•
Use
mediation and de-escalation skills and tactics
to ease tensions and mediate conflict
• Help
those in need of support, including providing
water, food, and encouragement.
• Communica
te well with your team and with the
CERN dispatcher
• Use c
ompassion and empathy when engaging
with the community and those in crisis
• If
a situation escalates and proves dangerous and/
or a deadly weapon is involved, call for an officer
to respond
•
Writ
e notes and reports and perform other
administrative tasks
Necessary Qualifications
• Experience working in diverse communities
• Experience
working in crisis and/or high stressful
situations
• Experience
with mediation
• Lived
experience in the justice system and/or
neighborhood groups is welcome and encouraged
• Works in a pr
ofessional manner
• Is
energetic and passionate about serving the
community
• Pr
oficient in writing and use of a computer
• Bachelor’
s degree, preferably in social work or
public health field, or no less than five years of
experience relevant to this position

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 44 APPENDIX B
Example Annual
CERN T eam Budget
44

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 45 Personnel FTE %
ED or other Org Manager 25% $50,000.00
CERN Supervisor 100% $90,000.00
CERN Dispatcher (3) 100% $75,000.00
Lead CIS (3) 100% $75,000.00
CIS (5) 100% $70,000.00
Subtotal $ 360,000.00
Fringe (25%) $90,000.00
T otal Personnel $360,010.00
Operations
Office Rent $36,000.00
Supplies $6,000.00
Vehicles (3) $105,000.00
Fleet gas and maintenance $32,400.00
Insurance $10,000.00
Radios (6) $1,500.00
Cell Phones (10) $2,000.00
Cell Phone lines $12,000.00
Water & Snacks $3,000.00
Uniforms $1,000.00
Total Operations $208,900.00
Subtotal $568,910.00
In-Direct (10%) $56,891.00
TOTAL $625,801.00

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 46 APPENDIX C
Tiered Dispatch/
CERN Pilot Calls for
Service Summaries
46

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 47 Vehicle Double Parking, Blocking
Driveway or Sidewalk, Inoperable or
Abandoned
Calls for service (CFS) BPD receives related to
vehicles blocking driveways, sidewalks, being double
parked, inoperable or abandoned are call types that
lend themselves to having an alternate response. Of
the 3,690 CFS in the tier 1 subset of call types that
were for the previously mentioned, only 56 percent
were handled by BPD Parking Enforcement Division.

Any reason for parking enforcement not handling
closer to 100 percent of call types falls short because the aforementioned call types are non-criminal and
not likely to necessitate a sworn police response.

Examples of CFS related to vehicles blocking
driveways, sidewalks, being double parked, inoperable
or abandoned, include an array of narratives that
summarily and accurately capture the call type.

General Disturbance and Noise
Disturbance
CFS BPD receives related to general disturbances
or noise disturbances are also call types that may
be better served with an alternate response. CERN
community responders who are better equipped to
mediate conflicts or de-escalate situations through a
community centered approach may serve as a better
option than dispatching sworn officers. BPD would
not be precluded from responding to the call types,
but rather a second option if needed.

Disturbance and Noise Disturbance CFS are generally
non-violent and non-criminal in nature. In some
cases, an argument or heated debates are categorized
as disturbances and in other cases petty theft from
retail stores are categorized as disturbances. In other cases, by the time an officer arrives to the scene the
responsible parties are either unable to locate or
gone on arrival. In many of the Noise Disturbance call
types, officers were able to make contact with the
responsible parties and ask them to cease what they
were doing or move along. These types of calls are
prime examples of how an alternate response would
work in Berkeley.

Found and Lost Property
Found and lost property call types include calls where
an individual has either found or lost money, credit
cards, their wallets, and other personal property.

Non-Injury Accident
Calls for service (CFS) BPD receives related to certain non-injury collision may be better served with an
alternate response. Civilian personnel should be the
primary handlers of these types of CFS. Unless there
are barriers that legally preclude civilian personnel
from handling certain types of property, civilian
personnel or telephone reporting can serve to
address these call types.

Although there may be some cases where major
injury collisions occur, most collisions that occur in
Berkeley are relatively minor and can be handled by
civilian personnel within a traffic unit or the Berkeley Department of Transportation (BerkDOT) that is
being developed. In cases where there are no injuries
to be reported, civilian personnel or BerkDOT can
handle these calls to take reports. Individuals may
also call in to a telephone reporting unit to make a
report.

Suspicious Person, Vehicle,
Circumstances
Calls for service (CFS) BPD receives related to
suspicious person, vehicle, or circumstances may be
better served with an alternate response. Civilian
personnel should be the primary handlers of these
types of CFS. CERN allows for community responders
to request officer assistance if needed. In some
cases, an officer is needed, but in many other cases,
the suspicious person or vehicle is gone on arrival or
unable to be located. Suspicious circumstances call
types are usually a suspicious person or vehicle driving around or someone doing something seemingly out
of the ordinary leading someone to call 911. Most of
the time, the call types do not necessitate the need
for a sworn response, even for welfare checks.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 48 911 Call Narratives from Computer
Aided Dispatch (CAD) Data
Disturbance Call Narratives:
“2 MALES HEARD IN A 415, CLOSE TO THE

CLUBHOUSE, TOO DARK TO GET ANY FURTHER,
Dispatch received by unit 4A9, 1194 on 2, 4 people
admonished and moved along.” (Sworn Officer)
“Refusing to leave for 3 hours .. Smell of marijuana
.., nature of call: refuse to leave, rp is front office manager, guest, guest, resp / guest in room 3128;
wm mid 50’s 507 wild hair grey north face jacket
and blue jeans guest has two boxer dogs brown in
color aggressive with guest, dispatch received by
unit 5a16, dispatch received by unit 5a18, dispatch
received by unit 5a16, subject gone on arrival unable
to locate from room, no further service requested.”
(Sworn Officer)
Noise Disturbance Call Narratives:
“4 or 5 people on the sidewalk talking loudly, dispatch received by unit 6a7, quiet on arrival and departure
1008 no paper.” (Sworn Officer)
“Very loud music, walls are shaking, dispatch received
by unit 4a7, code 4, dispatch received by unit 4a7,
secured apt blding, u/r rp, unable to gain access to
complex, no answer on intercom, quite from street.”
(Sworn Officer)
“Nature of call: loud music, loud music coming from
van ifo rp wants quieted, dispatch received by unit
2a7, music was coming from an rv. The driver was a
dj and was practicing. Driver agreed to stop.” (Sworn
Officer)
Found and Lost Property Call Narratives:
“rp at 1630 berkeley way, found credit card, Dispatch
received by unit 7A4, The credit card was not active.

I destroyed the credit card.” (Sworn Officer)
“Found wallet, has dl, rp will leave the wallet on her
front steps if she leaves her house, found in front of
her garage, dispatch received by unit 1a16, dispatch
received by unit 1a16, dispatch received by unit
1a16.” (Sworn Officer)
Non-Injury Accident Report Call
Narratives:
“UCPD was flagged down, req bpd response, blk
toyota highlander vs silver buick sentry, dispatch
received by unit 3a6, silver buick, reg valid from:
05/02/14 to 05/02/15 yrmd:05 make:buick btm
:4d vin : 1040 jackson st apt 423 city:albany c.c.:01
zip#:94706, 11-82 only. Parties exchanged info.”
(Sworn Officer)
“Rp driving a “bauer’s” company bus, hit a parked a
vehicle on the street, victim vehicle is silver volvo rp req’ing pd due to it being a company vehicle - and
so the victim doesn’t think he is a victim of 20002,
dispatch received by unit 7a6, contacted the rp
pannell who advised that he hit a parked vehicle
causing minor damage. Pannell’s vehicle also had
minor damage. I stood by while pannell left a company
print out with the victim vehicle that contained the
insurance information and contact information. No
further service was requested.” (Sworn Officer)
Suspicious Circumstances Call
Narratives:
“On ca between delaware and francisco, 2 males
poss working on a car, rp thinks looks sus, 1 of the
males shined a green led light on the rp, veh is a red
sportscar, poss corvette, hood was up on car, occ:
5 min ago, rp is passerby, walking dog, rp unable
to give desc on subjects, dispatch received by unit
6a5, dispatch received by unit 7a2, reg valid from:
09/24/14 to 09/24/15 yrmd:76 make:chev btm:
9405 bass rd city:kelseyville c.c.:17 zip#:95451,
proves ok” (Sworn Officer)
“Someone left a bag outside rp’s house yesterday, rp
is concerned because it has a gang mark on it, bldg is
not secure, bag is outside apt #3, dispatch received
by unit 5a6, black faux purse with no id and a meth
pipe and two baggies of crystalized substance.”
(Sworn Officer)
“Ladder leaned up against the fence and a bag
of potato chips in the backyard, occ: 0830 - 1830
hours, nature of call: 1021, dispatch received by unit
7a12, i contacted rp via telephone. He advised that
he did not think that a crime occurred, but rather

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 49 someone may have used his backyard as an escape
route during a police pursuit. Ladder granted access
to the eastern neighbors yard. That neighbor advised
nothing was taken. I thanked him for the information
and advised that i would pass it on to my supervisors.

He did not have cameras in his backyard that would
assist pd tho. No further pd service requested. Nfi
msc only.” (Sworn Officer)
Suspicious Person Call Narratives:
“2 males out in the area on bikes with flashlights
10 prior both poss bma’s 20’s both tall-- 600 thin
build both in dark heavy coats or parkas unknown
description pants no bags seen, nature of call: poss
casing, nature of call: poss casing -10 prior, reg mens style bikes no further desc last wb stuart then nb
college, broadcast, rp at 2745 stuart st in #2 will be
leaving in 20 mins for work, dispatch received by
unit 5a8, dispatch received by unit 5a10, unable to
locate.” (Sworn Officer)
“On grant between parker st and blake, male living
in a camper, house is under construction, bma, 50-
60 5’8 med build with dark color sweat shirt, occ 2
mins prior tor, camper dark green is parked ifo the
vacant house , rp thinks subj is casing the house
under construction, dispatch received by unit 4a17,
dispatch received by unit 4a5, dispatch received by
unit 4a11, vehicle is gone on arrival c4 doing area
check, unable to locate, susper is gone on arrival,
attempted to contact rp with negative results” (Sworn
Officer)
“2 bm’s with ties and clip boards, unknown what
they wanted., ls eb on woolsey on ft, no further desc,
dispatch received by unit 7a6, dispatch received by
unit 6a7, 2nd caller from woolsey, 2 bm’s, 20’s.... #1
whi shirt, a tie and clipboard. #2 red and black jacket, no further desc., gone on arrival unable to locate.”
(Sworn Officer)
Suspicious Vehicle Call Narratives:
“White van light off running and creeping around
neighborhood for past 30 mins, 2 males in vehicle,
wm’s or hm’s, flat bcst, vehicle still in the area, now ifo 2808 garber, gmc van, plate, now headed towards
college, 2nd rp, dispatch received by unit 4a15,
dispatch received by unit s11, dispatch received by
unit 3a6, dispatch received by unit s11, gone on
arrival unable to locate.” (Sworn Officer)
“Ongoing issues with same vehicle driving around
the elmwood area at night, rp thinks vehicle is
casing, vehicle is now parked at elmwood laundry in
parking lot, white gmc, washington plate, unknown if
occupied, usually occupied by 2 hm’s aprox late 20’s
- 30’s, dispatch received by unit 2a7, unoccupied.”
(Sworn Officer)
“Blk chrysler with red rims, 4 yr old child in the car all by herself, rp is a witness just driving by, unknown
plate on the chrysler, dispatch received by unit 2a3,
rp now says there is an adult asleep in the car

still thinks
we should check it out, nature of call: 1042,
dispatch received by unit 2a5, proves ok mother and
daughter waiting for their father, who is a mechanic
across the street, to get off work.” (Sworn Officer)
Vehicle Double Parking Call Narratives:
“Vehicle blocking roadway, construction vehicle, near
Malcolm x school, double parked, large white work
truck. Vehicle moved.” (Parking Enforcement)
“Vehicle double parked / blocking reporting parties
vehicle from getting out, blk Audi sedan, hazards
are on, reporting party in beige Nissan alt, gone on
arrival.” (Parking Enforcement)
Vehicle Blocking Sidewalk Call
Narratives:
“Blk Honda accord 8jdt371, no record, neighbor is in
wheelchair has not been able to pass by, waiting for
lock smith.” (Sworn Officer)
Vehicle Blocking Driveway Call
Narratives:

Vehicle: white Honda, information given to parking,
vehicle is a Honda clarity, the vehicle is in compliance and is not blocking the driveway homeowner can get
into and out of the driveway, i will call and advise the reporting party of this.” (Parking Enforcement)

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 50 Abandoned Vehicle Call Narratives:
“Car has been at location for 2 1/2 weeks, vehicle:
blk Dodge min van, nothing suspicious about vehicle
per reporting party.” (Sworn Officer)
“Nature of call: 1 week, parked on sidewalk, windows
down, back full of garbage, white ford pickup (late
80s) Husteads Towing en route.” (Sworn Officer)
Inoperable Vehicle Call Narratives:
“Across from, need flat bed, silver ford titanium sedan (TN), whole front end is smashed, tire is pushed in
backwards with rim down to the ground, SVR Notes:

BERRY BROS TOW, SILV FORD TITANIUM DWIGHT
WY, #821, 19-1967, berry bros tow advised eta 20-
30 min.” (Sworn Officer)
“Gold Toyota camry no rear lic plate, nb adeline from
stanford seen just prior, rear tire look as if it’s about to fly off, rear right, unable to locate, gone on arrival.” (Sworn Officer)

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 51 APPENDIX D
FIP and Related Course
Training History
51

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 52 Professional Standards Division Personnel and Training Bureau Fair and Impartial Policing:

Description: The science of human bias indicates that even the best officers might manifest bias and therefore even the best agencies must be proactive to achieve Fair and Impartial Policing. This training presents what is known about human biases and provides guidance to promoting Fair and Impartial Policing in the areas of policy, training, supervision/accountability, leadership, recruitment/hiring, institutional practices/priorities, outreach and measurement.

Keynote Speaker is Dr. Lori Fridell, former Director of PERF and a nationally recognized expert on Racially Biased Policing. BPD Instructors certified by Dr. Fridell.

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
8/17/10 Dr. Lori Fridell 12 8 and Community Members
11/5/12 Dr. Lori Fridell 12 10
11/16/13 Dr. Lori Fridell 12 4***Train-the Trainer Course*** 4/22/14 to 10/31/14 BPD 8 267
11/18/14 Dr. Lori Fridell 12 11 and Community Members
4/9/16 Dr. Lori Fridell 12 17 and Community Members
Fair and Impartial Policing Policy Training:

Description: The Berkeley Police Department will hold trainings on General Order B-4, Fair and Impartial Policing. The training will cover the purpose, definition, and policy related to Fair and Impartial Policing as well as the responsibility to report misconduct. Statistical dispositions and common questions related to this new policy will also be addressed. Presented by BPD Instructors certified by Dr. Fridell.

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
11/23/14 to 11/25/14 BPD 1 167
Biased Based Policing:

Description: California State Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training has developed a DVD course, “Bias Based Policing: Remaining Fair and Impartial” (formerly known as racial profiling) to satisfy the Continuing Professional Training requirement. This course is mandated by POST. This course was administered by supervisors and requires group discussion on topic.

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
11/1/14 to 2/27/15 BPD 2 177

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 53 Principled Policing:

Description: This course provides a “how to” on teaching policy approaches that emphasize respect, listening, neutrality, and trust, while also addressing the common implicit biases that can be barriers to these approaches (implicit bias). Instructors were certified and trained by the California Department of Justice.

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
9/21/16 DOJ 16 3***Train-the-Trainer Course***
5/15/17 CA POST 16 3***Train-the-Trainer Course***
12/28/17 to 1/25/18 BPD 8 64
12/17/20 & 1/14/21 BPD 4 88
Crisis Intervention Training:
36 to 40-hour Crisis Intervention Course:

Description: Law enforcement personnel will receive information about mental illnesses, crisis and suicide intervention techniques, common psychiatric medications, crisis intervention training for adolescents, cultural competency in the community, post-traumatic stress disorder and officer resiliency, assessing the risk for violence in a mentally ill individual, Welfare & Institution Code 5150 “(mental health hold) procedures, Mobile Crisis information and community resource contacts. CIT trained officers develop an increased understanding of mental illness which enables them to effectively coordinate appropriate interventions for individuals with mental illness.

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
7/28/11 to 10/26/18 Various 36-40 75 and counting
8-hour Crisis Intervention Course:

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
1/31/13 to 5/13/13 BPD 8 106
2-hour Crisis Intervention Update:

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
12/28/15 to 4/21/16 BPD 2 181
12/27/18 Berkeley Mental
Health
2 17
Crisis Intervention for Dispatchers:

Description: This course is designed to provide Public Safety Dispatchers with an overview of mental illness, tools to assess suicidal callers, and crisis intervention techniques. Mental health issues unique to the youth, veterans, and senior citizens are discussed. Excited delirium and agitated chaotic events are explained.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 54 DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
5/21/14 to 8/30/17 Alameda County
Behavioral Health
16 17
Crisis Negotiations for Dispatchers:

Description: This course will provide the student with an understanding of hostage negotiations principles, knowledge of the various roles, responsibilities and challenges a Dispatcher may face in such a situation.

Students will also learn techniques used by negotiators; field unit response to negotiations incidents; and techniques for dealing with the aftermath and stress management. It will also provide the student with the necessary information to practically apply these principles during critical incidents such as: Hostage situations Barricaded subjects Suicidal subjects when the student may be the call taker. This course also addresses “Swatting”.

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
11/30/16 and 9/21/17 IXII Group 8 2
Communication- Keeping Your Edge:

Description: California State Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training has developed a web based course, “Communications-Keeping Your Edge” to satisfy the Perishable Skills Continuing Professional Training requirement. This course is available to POST regulated employees at the POST Learning Portal online and its completion is mandated every two years.

The training will include verbal and non-verbal communication techniques, including responding to rude and abusive individuals, active listening, deflection, re-direction, and other communication techniques.

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
Ongoing POST 2 All Sworn
Tactical De-escalation:

Description: ***First POST approved Tactical De-escalation training*** The student will receive instruction designed to educate law enforcement officers in the theory, methodology, and application of tactical de-escalation skills. Course instruction is intended to provide the student with an in-depth understanding of tactics used to handle unarmed non- compliant subjects, subjects armed with weapons other than firearms, and subjects who may attempt suicide by cop. The course consists of lecture, video review and hands-on/practical tactical de-escalation training for in-service officers.

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
6/14/16 to 10/27/16 BPD 8 135
8/13/18 to 3/12/20 BPD/Various 8 76

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 55 Harassment Prevention Training:

Description: Gov. Code 12950.1 (Amended by SB 1343) and the City of Berkeley prohibit harassment on the basis of sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, and any other classifications protected by state or federal law.

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
Ongoing COB/BPD 1 to 2 depending
on rank.

All Personnel
LGBT Awareness for Law Enforcement:

Description: This interactive course includes five modules that are designed to address the following learning outcomes:

1. The
student will explain the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity and how these two aspects of identity relate to each other and to race, culture and religion.

2. The studen
t will define terminology used to describe sexual orientation and gender identity.

3. The studen
t will identify ways to create an inclusive workplace and to support LGBTQ+ co-workers.

4. The studen
t will identify key moments in the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.

5. The studen
t will understand how hate crimes and domestic violence impact LGBTQ+ people.

DATE PROVIDER HOURS PERSONNEL TRAINED
June – July 2021 Out to Protect 4 All Personnel
Upcoming Trainings:

Personnel and Training are currently in the process of scheduling additional 8 hour Implicit Bias training for the Fall 2021

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 56 APPENDIX E
FY 2020 Year End
Workforce Report
56

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 57 ATTACHMENT 16: POLICE DEPARTMENT WORKFORCE

BY OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES, RACE & GENDER
POLICE

DEPARTMENT TOTAL M F
WHITE

BLACK OR

AFRICAN

AMERICAN

HISPANIC OR

LATINO ASIAN

NATIVE HAWAIIAN

AND OTHER

PACIFIC ISLANDER

AMERICAN

INDIAN AND

ALASKA NATIVE
TWO OR
MORE

RACES MINORITIES

M F M F M F M F M F M F M F
DEPARTMENT *

REPRESENTATION

ALAMEDA ACS
160 134

83.8%

85.7%
26 16.3%

14.3%
76 47.5%

47.7%
15 9.4%

7.4%
19 11.9%

11.7%
4 2.5%

3.8%
20 12.5%

9.6%
3 1.9%

0.4%
16 10.0%

11.8%
2 1.3%

2.5%
0 0.0%

2.9%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

0.3%
0 0.0%

0.0%
3 1.9%

1.8%
2 1.3%

0.3%
69 43.1%

45.0%

POLICE CHIEF

REPRESENTATION

ALAMEDA ACS
1 1
100.0%

80.2%
0 0.0%

18.7%
1 100.0%

49.5%
0 0.0%

13.2%
0 0.0%

20.9%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

8.7%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

6.6%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

2.2%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

38.4%

CAPTAINS

REPRESENTATION

ALAMEDA ACS
3 2

66.7%

80.2%
1 33.3%

18.7%
1 33.3%

49.5%
1 33.3%

13.2%
0 0.0%

20.9%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

8.7%
0 0.0%

0.0%
1 33.3%

0.0%
0 0.0%

6.6%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

2.2%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

0.0%
1 33.3%

38.4%

LIEUTENANTS

REPRESENTATION

ALAMEDA ACS
9 8

88.9%

80.2%
1 11.1%

18.7%
5 55.6%

49.5%
1 11.1%

13.2%
1 11.1%

20.9%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

8.7%
0 0.0%

0.0%
2 22.2%

0.0%
0 0.0%

6.6%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

2.2%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

0.0%
3 33.3%

38.4%

SERGEANTS

REPRESENTATION

ALAMEDA ACS
31 23

74.2%

80.2%
8 25.8%

18.7%
16 51.6%

49.5%
5 16.1%

13.2%
3 9.7%

20.9%
0 0.0%

0.0%
2 6.5%

8.7%
1 3.2%

0.0%
2 6.5%

0.0%
1 3.2%

6.6%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

2.2%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

0.0%
1 3.2%

0.0%
10 32.3%

38.4%

POLICE OFFICERS

REPRESENTATION

ALAMEDA ACS
117 101

86.3%

86.4%
16 13.7%

13.6%
54 46.2%

47.3%
8 6.8%

6.6%
15 12.8%

10.4%
4 3.4%

4.3%
18 15.4%

9.8%
2 1.7%

0.4%
11 9.4%

13.3%
1 0.9%

2.0%
0 0.0%

3.3%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

0.0%
3 2.6%

2.0%
1 0.9%

0.3%
55 47.0%

45.8%

NON - SWORN

REPRESENTATION

ALAMEDA ACS
91 30

33.0%

57.9%
61 67.0%

42.1%
10 11.0%

19.7%
13 14.3%

19.7%
12 13.2%

2.0%
27 29.7%

10.2%
3 3.3%

11.4%
10 11.0%

11.0%
5 5.5%

19.7%
6 6.6%

0.8%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

0.8%
0 0.0%

0.0%
0 0.0%

2.4%
5 5.5%

0.8%
68 75%

59.1%

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 58 APPENDIX F
Community Based
Organizations and
Nonprofits Providing
Services in Berkeley
58

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 59 Youth after-school and recreational
programs
Youth Spirit Artworks
Youth Spirit Artworks works to empower homeless
and low-income young people in Berkeley by
teaching youth-specific vocational skills related to
commercial arts and entrepreneurship, providing
youth with an income from jobs training and sales of
art and teaching budgeting and money management
skills, helping youth modeling experiences of healthy
family and community relationships, and promoting
youth commitment to personal health and wholeness,
including a commitment to nonviolence.
1 Currently the City of Berkeley only funds the Youth
Spirit Artworks’ (YSA) Youths TAY Tiny Homes
Management program, which is discussed below, but
funding could be expanded to their Fine Arts program
that uses art jobs and jobs training to empower and
transform the lives of youth, giving young people
the skills, experience, and self- confidence needed
to meet their full potential, and the Community Arts
programs, that centers around public artmaking for
community revitalization.
2 Berkeley Youth Alternatives
Berkeley Youth Alternatives (BYA) uses a strength-
based, holistic, continuum of care approach that
emphasizes education, health and well-being, and
economic self- sufficiency in order to help children,
youth, and their families build capacity to reach their innate potential. BYA uses preventative measures by
reaching youth before their problems become crises
and uses intervention measures by providing support
services to youth engaged in the youth justice system.

The City of Berkeley’s fiscal year 2022 budget reflects an allocation of $30,000 to the BYA After School
Program
3 and $30,000 to BYA’s Counseling program
for children.4
1 https:/ /youthspiritartworks.org/
2 https:/ /youthspiritartworks.org/programs/community-art- program/
3 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Manager/ Budget/cob-proposed-budget-fy2022.pdf
4 https:/ /www.byaonline.org/programs/afterschool-center Other programs at the BYA that would benefit from
City funding are the Environmental Training Center, a
youth internship program for youth ages 16-24 that
teaches basic work ethic, professionalism and skills
necessary for future employment,
5 the youth and
Family Opportunity Hub that focuses on increasing
access to health and wellness services for low-
income and uninsured children and their families
6,
Career Development Center which administers
multiple employment readiness strategies for youth
and young adults ages 16-24
7, and lastly; Sports and
Fitness which provides a structured and disciplined
environment for participants to learn quality values
such as teamwork, confidence building and self-
discipline.
8 Violence Prevention and Restorative
Justice Programs
SEEDS Community Resolution Center will expect to
see a $22,553 allocation of City funding to provide
facilitation, training, and coaching in restorative
justice, community building, conflict resolution,
restorative inquiry, verbal de-escalation, harm repair, and positive school culture and climate development.

SEEDS School Services help to foster positive
relationships among and between educators and
students, thereby increasing students’ engagement in
school, and maximizing the effectiveness of the adults
who serve them. SEEDS School Services can serve
to strengthen the essential links between students,
their peers, their families, and their educators.
9 SEEDS also offers community mediation services
that offer a supportive place where people can talk
through their conflict in a productive manner,
10 and
conflict coaching to help people process and problem
solve specific issues.
11 5 https:/ /www.byaonline.org/programs/health-and-
environment/environmental-training-center
6 https:/ /www.byaonline.org/programs/teen-center/youth- and-family-opportunity-hub
7 https:/ /www.byaonline.org/programs/career-development- and-prevent-center
8 https:/ /www.byaonline.org/programs/sports-and-fitness/ sports-and-fitness
9 https:/ /www.seedscrc.org/school-services
10 https:/ /www.seedscrc.org/community-mediation
11 https:/ /www.seedscrc.org/community-conflict-coaching

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 60 Intimate Partner Violence, Sexual
Violence and Sexual Exploitation
Prevention and Intervention
The City of Berkeley does not currently fund any CBOs
that work explicitly with survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or sexual exploitation;
however, the City does fund two women’s specific
shelters. The Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center’s
12 Bridget Transitional House Case Management
component will receive $118,728, the Daytime Drop-
In Services will receive $48,153, and the Homeless
Case Management – Housing Retention will receive
$100,190.
13 Berkeley Food & Housing Project’s
Women’s Shelter receives $230,644 in City funding.

Organizations identified by members of the Task
Force that support these population specifically, but
who do not receive City funding include Motivating,
Inspiring, Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited
Youth (MISSSEY)
14, Bay Area Women Against Rape
(BAWAR)15, and the Family Violence Law Center 16.

The City could also be innovative and develop
RFPs for CBOs that work directly to support these
populations of people. It should be noted that, while a large proportion of women experience these types of
issues, men and LGBTQ populations experience them
as well, which should be taken into consideration in
the creation of RFPs.

Housing and Homeless Services
Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS)
BOSS, which was summarized previously, currently
receives $932,975 which is the most funding of all
the CBOs contracted in the City and centered on
homelessness. BOSS current receives funding for their
BOSS House Navigation Team that provides needs
assessments, housing education, access to listings,
advocacy with landlords, help filling out housing
applications, connection to subsidies as available, and case management to facilitate a successful transition
to housing along with critical time intervention to
12 https:/ /www.womensdropin.org/
13 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Manager/ Budget/cob-proposed-budget-fy2022.pdf
14 https:/ /misssey.org/
15 https:/ /bawar.org/
16 http:/ /fvlc.org/get-help/resources/
ensure stabilization, Representative Payee Services
to individuals who have been designated by Social
Security as needing a payee to manage their income,
or who have been referred for this assistance, Ursula
Sherman Village Families Program and Village Singles
Shelter a shelter for homeless disabled adults.

Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA); Tiny House Village
Youth Spirit Artworks’ Tiny House Village17 was built
in early 2021 for homeless Transitional Age Youth;
age 18-23 in crisis. YSA partnered with a non-profit
developer to create a multi-faceted, community-led
Village with 26 tiny homes that was designed by the
young people it will benefit. The completed Village
features on-site communal bathrooms and showers,
a kitchen yurt for residents to cook weekly communal
meals and securely store their own food, community
gathering space for meetings, and on-site Resident
Assistants who live in the community. Residents
in the Village, are engaged in building a strong and
connected community, have opportunities for
personal and professional growth, including access
to training and mentorship in the following areas:
artmaking, art entrepreneurship and sales, nonprofit
management, gardening, sewing, medicine, music,
biking and exercise, cooking, construction, and
more. Residents are supported in developing a
responsibility to the community at large, achieved
through connections to local faith organizations and
active involvement with local social justice projects.

Additionally, all residents at the Village take part in YSA’s core jobs training program, where they will
receive wrap-around case management services
and engage in youth-led workshops around healthy
interpersonal relationships, restorative practices, and more.
18 YSA is expected to receive an $117,000 allocation
from the City for the case management component
19 of the initiative, however expanding funding to build up the community would be incredibly impactful.

Rebuilding T ogether
Rebuilding Together works to bring warmth,
safety, and independence to Berkeley residents by
17 https:/ /youthspiritartworks.org/programs/tiny-house-village/ 18 https:/ /youthspiritartworks.org/programs/tiny-house-village 19 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Manager/ Budget/cob-proposed-budget-fy2022.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 61 revitalizing homes and neighborhood facilities.20 The City is expected to allocate $98,275, to the Our Safe
at Home program, which provides safety assessments
and hazard elimination for qualified applicants. By
implementing safety modifications such as grab bars
in the bathroom, handheld shower heads, elevated
toilet seats, exterior handrails, or wheelchair ramps,
the Safe at Home program helps prevent accidents or
exposure that can cause injury, illness, or even death.

The Safe at Home program improves quality of life for
its clients by performing upgrades including painting,
lead abatement, repairing/installing heating systems,
replacing electrical panels, smoke alarm installation,
fire extinguishers, and carbon monoxide detectors to
address environmental hazards in the home.
21 City funding could be expanded to the Community
Facility Improvement program which provides local
nonprofits and community centers with much-
needed repairs and upgrades, which will contribute
to an organizations’ ability to effectively serve the
Berkeley community. Rebuilding Together also
provides emergency repairs services and energy and
efficiency upgrades, reducing the number of residents
living in uninhabitable conditions.
22 Food security, increased
access to nutritious food
Healthy Black Families Inc.

Healthy Black Families Inc, educates, engages, and
advocates for the holistic growth and development
of diverse Black individuals and families. They will
receive funding for their Sisters Together Empowering
Peers (STEP) program; a peer-led support and
empowerment group that addresses health and social
inequities for African American parenting women in
our community, but funding could be expanded to
their program; Thirsty for Change (T4C), a healthy
eating and nutrition education and advocacy
program that engages Black families in South and
West Berkeley through a wide array of activities to
improve the health of the community.
23 20 https:/ /rtebn.org/
21 https:/ /rtebn.org/our-work/#our-programs
22 https:/ /rtebn.org/our-work/#our-programs
23 https:/ /www.healthyblackfamiliesinc.org/t4c
Mental Health and Co-Occurring
Conditions
Bonita House
As previously explained, Bonita House provides
mental health and addiction treatment, intensive
residential treatment, independent living programs,
housing and employment assistance, and outpatient
case management. The City currently allocated
$24,480 to its case management services, which
could be increased substantially to build capacity and
efficacy of its services.

Bay Area Community Resources; School Based
Behavioral Health Services (BACR)
BARC provides school-linked mental health and
prevention services for middle and high school
children and their families, in high-need. BACRs
prevention and early intervention approach
draws from evidence-based practices and proven
resiliency models utilizing experienced licensed and
pre-licensed clinicians.
24 BACR offers restorative,
culturally humble, and trauma-informed mental
health services to help youth cope with challenging
life circumstances and develop positive strategies to
be successful and healthy in and out of school.

Substance Use and Addiction
New Bridge Foundation
The New Bridge Foundation (NBF) is a residential and
outpatient addiction treatment center that provides
comprehensive services and has a community
outreach component to their program. It does not
currently receive City funding but is a well- known
and respected CBO in the community, and could
benefit from expanded funding.

Healthcare Management
Lifelong Medical Care (LMC)
The City will allocate a total of $304,398 for some
treatment services such as geriatric and hypertension
care, however LMC also has initiatives such East
Bay Community Recovery Project, which supports
the self-sufficiency and wellness of individuals and
24 https:/ /www.bacr.org/behavioral-and-mental-health

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 62 families by providing comprehensive and integrated
services for mental health, substance use and related
health conditions while addressing housing and
employment.
25 They also have a program called Heart
to Heart which fosters the idea that community
connectedness and cohesion through community
engagement, building relationships, and trust are
critical for improving community health.

Heart 2 Heart works to prevent high blood pressure
and heart disease while connecting community
members to resources and services they need. The
Heart 2 Heart program serves as a bridge between
community members and health centers throughout
the Heart 2 Heart community.
26 Funding can also
be increased for their Case Management Tied to
Permanent Housing program ($163,644), Supporting
Housing Program ($55,164), and Street Medicine/
Trust Clinic ($50,000).
27 Berkeley Free Clinic
The Berkeley Free Clinic is a health collective that
provides free medication, supplies, dental and medical
care, peer counseling, and community referrals. The
Clinic relies solely on individual or organizational
donations and government support and is one of the
only clinics in California offering primary health care free of charge. The clinic maintains that health care
should be available at a level and quality sufficient to meet the basic needs of everyone regardless of race,
gender, age, immigration status, income level, or any
other characteristic, and believes health care is a
right, not a privilege. The clinic is expected to receive only $15,858 for the Free Women and Transgender
Health Care Service. Funding for this program could
be significantly increased. Funding could additionally
be expanded to services such as the Outreach Team
which uses volunteers to hand out hot meals, hygiene
supplies, and more to people in need, TB Tests, Local,
Resource Navigation & Referrals, Health Insurance
& Food Benefits, Peer Counseling, STI, Screenings
& Treatment, UTI Testing & Treatment, Hepatitis,
HIV, and TB Counseling +, Screenings, and Dental
Services.
28 25 https:/ /lifelongmedical.org/ebcrp/
26 https:/ /lifelongmedical.org/heart-2-heart/
27 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Manager/ Budget/cob-proposed-budget-fy2022.pdf
28 https:/ /www.berkeleyfreeclinic.org/servicesupdate

Economic development and
new city jobs
Inner-City Services (ICS)
ICS will receive just $101,351 of City funding to
provide comprehensive employment training and
job placement services to thousands of Bay Area
residents. ICS combines traditional content-based
education with hands-on classroom training and
cutting-edge computer technology. ICS’s main
objective is to instill workplace character values: a
sense of pride and professionalism, dignity, respect,
integrity, and excellence throughout our diverse
student body, in order to help people thrive in society and the business world.
29 Multicultural Institute
Multicultural Institute (MI) helps increase access
to opportunities for immigrant families to reach
economic stability, and their programming uses
strategies to enhance economic, educational,
and skill opportunities, cultivate leadership
development, provide direct services, and stimulate
positive transformation of individuals, families, and
communities. These programs ultimately, assist
individuals in contributing and participating in the
civic life and well-being of their community. MI
will receive $68,136 for their Lifeskills Program
30 that provides economic development, vocational
skill development, learning opportunities, and
immigration and health services to people living in
Berkeley.
31 In addition to their Lifeskills program MI
will receive $33,603 in City funding for their Youth
Mentoring program.
32 29 https:/ /www.icsworks.com/about.php
30 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Manager/ Budget/cob-proposed-budget-fy2022.pdf
31 https:/ /mionline.org/what-we-do/
32 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Manager/ Budget/cob-proposed-budget-fy2022.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 63 Parks and open spaces including
activities for young people and families
Berkeley Community Gardening
Collaborative (BCGC)
Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative is a
diverse group of community garden members who
share a commitment to organic, urban agriculture and
access to healthy food for all residents of Berkeley.

They protect existing gardens, facilitate the formation of new gardens, and advocate for food security
initiatives in local schools and within the city. BCGC
actively seeks to create a more sustainable society
by engaging in urban agriculture, the preservation
of open space, habitat restoration, and cultivating
community. To broaden its impact and build alliances,
BCGC partners with other organizations that share
its goals. BCGC will receive $11,895 in City funding,
which could be expanded to strengthen their impact
on communities in Berkeley.
33 Moving South Berkeley Forward (MSBF)
Moving South Berkeley Forward is a youth-driven
environmental, social justice project focused on
community health and educational equity in South
Berkeley and is spearheaded by youth of color and
the South Berkeley community. This project is a joint
effort between the Berkeley Community Gardening
Collaborative, UC Berkeley’s Environmental Science,
Policy & Management Department, Berkeley High
School, and the community of South Berkeley. MSBF
wants the community to have accessible health
resources and a better future.
34 MSBF does not
currently receive any City funding.

Childcare
BANANA
BANANAS works in partnership with early education
providers in order to provide support for families in
their parenting journey. BANANAs programs and
services include assisting families find and pay for
quality childcare, parenting workshops, playgroups,
and professional development for all types of early
care and education providers. Their services and
33 https:/ /ecologycenter.org/bcgc/
34 https:/ /movingsouthberkeleyforward.weebly.com/
support allow working families to thrive and be
confident their children are in quality and nurturing
learning environments.35 BANANA Currently receives
funding for childcare subsidies ($283,110), playgroups
($10,527), and Quality Rating and
Improvement
System services ($95,000).

The City could additionally, expand funding subsidies
to early childcare providers such as Nia House
Learning Center in West Berkeley, and Bay Area
Hispano Institute for Advancement, Inc. (BAHIA
Inc.). Nia House Learning Center’s mission is to bring
together children from different socio-economic
backgrounds to grow and work in harmony and
cooperation, and to actively work toward all of Dr.

Maria Montessori’s concepts, especially that of
peace through education.
36 BAHIA Inc. is a nonprofit
organization that provides high quality, bilingual
learning environments where children grow to
become successful lifelong bilingual learners. BAHIA
is the only full-time; Latino nonprofit in Berkeley
providing bilingual (Spanish-English) childcare and
education to children ages 2-10 years of age. BAHIA
is a respected leader in the community that strives
to improve the quality of life of children and their
families in the community.
37 Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement
Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement, Inc.
(BAHIA Inc.) is a nonprofit organization that provides
high quality, bilingual learning environments where
children grow to become successful lifelong bilingual
learners. BAHIA is the only full-time; Latino nonprofit in Berkeley providing bilingual (Spanish-English)
childcare and education to children ages 2-10 years
of age. BAHIA is a respected leader in the community
that strives to improve the quality of life of children and their families in the community.
38 LGBTQ Services and Support
Pacific Center for Human Growth (PCHG)
Pacific Center for Human Growth is the oldest
LGBTQIA+ center in the Bay Area, the third oldest
35 https:/ /bananasbunch.org/about/
36 http:/ /www.niahouse.org/
37 https:/ /www.bahiainc.com/about-us
38 https:/ /www.bahiainc.com/about-us

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 64 in the nation, and operates the only sliding scale
mental health clinic for LGBTQIA+ and QTBIPOC
people and their families in Berkeley.
39 PCGH helps
enhance the mental health and overall well-being of
LGBTQIA+ and QTBIPOC communities by providing
culturally responsive therapy, peer to peer support
groups, community outreach services, and facilitated
workshops. The City will allocate $23,245 to their
Safer Schools Project, but funding could be expanded
to their Youth Program that supports young people in
feeling connected, supported, and uplifted.
40 Community Alternative
Placement Hub (CAPH)
In order to complement the CERN as it relates to a
response to a CFS, certain CBOs should be designated
as “community alternative placement hubs” (CAPH)
which can serve as an alternative to jail or mental
institutions for people in need or immediate shelter
or services who have not committed any crime.

BOSS, Bonita House New Bridge Foundation and
Bay Area Community Services (BACS) have already
been identified above in and previous section and
could additionally be well positioned CBOS to build
out the CERN and serve as CAPHs. BOSS, which was
summarized in an above section, currently receives
the most funding of all the homeless CBOs contracted
in the City could be best positioned to serve as a
general CAPH for people in crisis or experiencing
a high need of services or intervention. Bonita
House could serve as a hub that specifically handles
people with mental health crises and co-occurring
conditions cases, and the Newbridge Foundation
could be utilized specifically for people experiencing
substance abuse crises. BACS can also serve as a
candidate for a CAPH for people experiencing crises
related to homelessness and behavioral health needs.

Additionally, and specific for youth in need of
immediate shelter and services, the Youth Spirit
Artworks; TAY Tiny Homes could also be utilized.

Lastly, the New Bridge Foundation, which does not
currently receive City funding could also be utilized
as a CAPH, for people with mental health challenges.
39 https:/ /www.pacificcenter.org/about-us
40 https:/ /www.pacificcenter.org/youth-programs

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 65 Berkeley Calls for
Service Analysis

APPENDIX G

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 66 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Berkeley City Auditor conducted an extensive report on Berkeley Police Department (BPD) calls for service (CFS or events) which was published in July of 2021. This report has been prepared to illustrate the application of NICJR’s CFS classification methodology to BPD CFS data. To the extent possible, the City Auditor’s analyses have not been replicated.

Specific Analysis Objectives

1. Provide an analysis of BPD calls for service according to NICJR’s Crime Categories

2. Map NICJR’
s Crime Categories to NICJR’s proposed Community Emergency Response Network (CERN)

3. Iden
tify which calls for service should be responded to by a non-BPD alternative Findings
A review of over 358,000 calls for service covering the period 2015-2019 found that over 81 percent of BPD calls were for Non-Criminal events. Only 7.4 percent of calls were associated with felonies of any kind.

Figure 1. Calls for Service by Crime Category
Although the BPD utilized nearly 200 call types during the study period, just ten comprised over half of all events.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 67 Table 1. T op 10 Call Types, Auditor Report
Call Types T otal Events
Traffic Stop 44,795
Disturbance 35,696
Audible Alarm 19,920
Noise Disturbance 15,773
Security Check 15,262
Welfare Check 15,030
Suspicious Circumstance 11,547
Trespassing 11,058
Theft 10,556
Wireless 911 9,899
NICJR has developed a tiered dispatch model for CFS, one that includes a robust, structured, and well- trained team of community responders – a Community Emergency Response Network. Pursuant to the NICJR methodology, CFS are initially allocated to CERN Tiers based on a standardized approach outlined below:

Tier 1: CERN dispatched only
•
Ev
ent type: Non-Criminal
Tier 2: CERN lead, with officers present
• Ev
ent type: Misdemeanor with low potential of violence
• If
CERN arrives on scene and determines there is low potential for violence and an arrest is unnecessary or unlikely, officers leave.

Tier 3: Officers lead, with CERN present
• Ev
ent type: Non-Violent Felony or an arrest is likely
• If
officers arrive on scene and determine there is no need for an arrest or an arrest is unlikely and violence is unlikely, officers step back and CERN takes the lead.

Type 4: Officers only
• Ev
ent type: Serious Violent Felony or high likelihood of arrest Default Tier assignments are adjusted based on factors including call type arrest rates and a qualitative assessment of whether specific call types would benefit from an alternate response; the arrest analysis typically results in CFS “moving up” a Tier, whereas the alternate response benefit analysis generally results in CFS moving down a level. In Berkeley, application of the default Tier assignment, adjusted to take into account arrest rates and alternate response benefit, results in 50 percent of BPD events being categorized as Tier 1; CERN would play a lead role in responding to over 64 percent of all CFS.

The top 10
call types
account for
54% of all
events.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 68 Table 2. Recommended Tiered Dispatch Model
Crime
Category CERN BPD % of Call
Types
# of Call Types
in Each Tier
Tier 1 Only 50% 92
Tier 2 Lead Present 10% 19
Tier 3 Present Lead 18% 33
Tier 4 Only 21% 39
Of the top ten call types by call initiation source, 100 percent of On-View, and 80 percent of 911 and Non- Emergency event types are assigned to CERN Tier 1.

Table 3. T op T en Call Types by Initiation Source and Tier Officer Initiated CERN
Tier 911 Emergency CERN
Tier Non-Emergency Line CERN
Tier
Traffic 1 Disturbance 1 Disturbance 1
Security Check 1 Wireless 911 1 Audible Alarm 1
Pedestrian Stop 1 Ascertain 911 1 Noise Disturbance 1
Officer Flagged Down 1 Welfare Check 1 Welfare Check 1
Suspicious Vehicle 1 Suspicious Circumstances 1 Trespassing 1 Parking Violation 1 Battery 3 Petty Theft 2
Bike Stop 1 Suspicious Person 1 Advice 1
Abandoned Vehicle 1 Family Disturbance 1 Suspicious Circumstances 1 Found Property 1 Petty Theft 2 Parking Violation 1
Disturbance 1 Mental Illness 1 Suspicious Person 1
An average of slightly more than 2 officers responds to each CFS, spending an average of .61 hours event, as measured by arrival on-scene to call clearance.

Table 4. Time Spent Responding to Events
Crime Category T otal Hours
Arrival to Close
Average Hours
Per Event
Proportion of
T otal Officer Time
Non-Criminal 98,119 .38 52.3%
Misdemeanor 20,414 .53 10.9%
Non-Violent Felony 33,836 .79 18.0%
Serious Violent Felony 35,275 .74 6.9%
Total 187,644 .61 18.8%

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 69 KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
Analysis of BPD CFS data for the period 2015-2019 indicates that over 81 percent of CFS were for Non- Criminal events, and that the non-emergency line was the single largest event generating source. Although the vast majority of CFS during the analysis period were Non-Criminal, an average of 2.4 officers was dispatched per event response. NICJR’s assessment of viable alternate responses indicates that 50 percent of CFS can be responded to with no BPD involvement, with another 18 percent requiring BPD to be present, but to serve in a support, rather than a lead, role.

With these results in mind, NICJR recommends that alternative response options be developed for the 50 percent of CFS that do not require a law enforcement response. This process should involve an assessment of both relevant municipal and community-based resources that can serve as the basis for the Berkeley CERN.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 70 OBJECTIVES, SCOPE, AND

METHODOLOGY
This report is designed to:

1. Pr
ovide an analysis of BPD CFS according to NICJR’s Crime Categories

2. Map NICJR’
s Crime Categories to NICJR’s proposed Community Emergency Response Network (CERN)

3. Iden
tify which calls for service should be responded to by a non-BPD alternative NICJR has developed a tailored approach to the analysis of CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) calls for service data based on hands-on experience in multiple cities nationwide. NICJR CFS analyses use the following categorization of final disposition CAD events: Non-Criminal (NC), Misdemeanor (MISD), Non-Violent Felony (NV FEL), and Serious Violent Felony (SV FEL). NICJR categories are aligned with state specific penal codes and their associated penalties. If a call type is not found in the penal code, it is placed into the Non-Criminal Category.

NICJR uses this method of categorizing events because it affords the most linear correlation between the event and its associated criminal penalty. By categorizing events in this manner, NICJR can clearly identify the portion of CFS that are either non-criminal or are for low-level and non-violent offenses. Categorizing call data into a simple criminal vs. non-criminal, violent, vs. non-violent, structure also supports conversations with the community about alternatives to policing for specific call types grounded in easily understandable data.

NICJR’s methodology was informed by an assessment of the limitations of other approaches to categorizing CAD data. Alternative approaches include matching CFS to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) categories or to the newer National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) categories.

Both options have serious limitations. The UCR data set only includes violent and property crimes, while the more expansive NIBRS platform has not been widely adopted by policing agencies. In 2018, for example, UCR data was submitted for 16,659 (out of 18,000) law enforcement agencies across the country, while only 7,283 reported crime data via NIBRS.
1 With respect to the present analysis, the BPD provided NICJR with a comprehensive CFS data set for calendar years 2015-2019, representing 358,269 unique calls for service.

Each year’s worth of data included the call type descriptions for the respective reporting period. There were 183 available call type descriptions for each year. The data set included 18 non-traffic related disposition codes by which calls were cleared or disposed. There were also numerous Racial Identity and Profiling Advisory (RIPA) Board disposition codes as required by Assembly Bill 953, which requires law enforcement agencies to collect “perceived demographic and other detailed data regarding pedestrian and traffic stops.” NICJR consolidated these call types into four descriptive Crime Categories for reporting purposes: Non- Criminal, Misdemeanor, Non-Violent Felony, and Serious Violent Felony. Call types were assigned to Crime Categories based on mapping to the California Penal Code Part 1, Title 1-15. A crosswalk of BPD call types used during the 2015-2019 period, and Crime Categories, is provided in Appendix A. 1 dd_number_of_leas_enrolled_part_status_and_method_of_data_sub_by_pop_group-2018_final.pdf (fbi.gov)

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 71 Table 5. NICJR Crime Categories
Crime Category Description
Non-Criminal (NC) Any event not identified in the California State Penal Code Misdemeanor (MISD) Any event identified in the California State Penal Code as a Misdemeanor
Non-Violent Felony (NV FEL) Any event identified in the California State Penal Code as a Non-Violent Felony
Serious Violent Felony (SV FEL) Any event identified in the California State Penal Code as a Serious Violent Felony
Call type description variables also allowed NICJR to determine CFS initiation source – BPD Public Safety Communications Center, officer-initiated activity or On-View, CHP transfer, telephone, VOIP, or other source.

In addition, CFS response time data was used to determine how long it takes BPD officers to respond to CFS and how much time officers spend on CFS by incident type once they arrive on-scene. There were five-time variables provided in the data. To determine how long it took officers to respond to CFS, NICJR assessed the length of time between call dispatch and an officer arriving on-scene. To determine how long officers spent responding to events, NICJR analyzed the length of time between an officer arriving on-scene and clearing the call. NICJR was also able to use CAD data to determine the mean number of officers responding to each type of call by Crime Category.

Table 6. Berkeley CAD Data Time Variable Descriptions
CAD Data Variable Label CAD Translation
CreateDateTime Time call first came into the Communications Center Dispatch Time Time call was first dispatched to an officer EnRouteTime Time officer is enroute to the scene of a call OnSceneTime Time officer arrived on-scene
ClearTime Time officer is back in service to take new calls

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 72 CHARACTERISTICS OF CALLS
Analysis of 358,269 events from 2015-2019
NICJR analyzed the CFS data set across a number of metrics including overall call type frequency, call initiation source, and call Crime Category. Figures and tables in this section draw from a sample of 358,269 unique calls for service covering the period 2015-2019 within the CAD files NICJR obtained from BPD. As noted in the Objectives, Scope, and Methodology, section above, BPD used 183 unique call types during the reviewed period. This section provides various analyses of this data.

Event Initiation
Calls for service may be initiated in three primary ways: by calling 911, by calling the BPD non-emergency line, or by officer-initiated call. The other ways in which a CFS may be initiated are through a CHP transfer, telephone, VOIP, alarm, cell phone, on view, traffic stop, or other means. Figure 1 shows the proportion of events by initiation source. Over 55 percent of all calls during the 2015-2019 period were initiated through the non-emergency line.

Figure 2. Events by Initiation Source
* Does not include calls with missing values
T op T en Events
Table 7 provides the top ten events by Initiation Source. Together, these call types comprised 68 percent of all BPD events over the study period.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 73 Table 7. T op 10 Calls by Initiation Source
Officer Initiated 911 Emergency Non-Emergency Line
Traffic Disturbance Disturbance
Security Check Wireless 911 Audible Alarm
Pedestrian Stop Ascertain 911 Noise Disturbance
Officer Flagged Down Welfare Check Welfare Check
Suspicious Vehicle Suspicious Circumstances Trespassing Parking Violation Battery Petty Theft
Bike Stop Suspicious Person Advice
Abandoned Vehicle Family Disturbance Suspicious Circumstances Found Property Petty Theft Parking Violation
Disturbance Mental Illness Suspicious Person
Events by Crime Category
Figure 2 shows the frequency of call types by Crime Category. BPD averaged 71,654 events per year during the analysis period. The vast majority of these CFS, 81.3 percent, are classified as Non-Criminal; as reflected in Appendix B, Non-Criminal CFS consistently comprised a majority of events during the 2015 to 2019 period.

Figure 3. Percent of Events by Crime Category
*Does Not Include 2,943 CFS w/missing Call Type Description During the five-year period reviewed, at least 96.7 percent of On-View events were Non-Criminal and over 76 percent of 911 calls comprised Non-Criminal events. Interestingly, Officer-Initiated calls were the most likely to be Non-Criminal.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 74 Table 8. Percent of Non-Criminal Events by Initiation Source Event Initiation Source Y ear
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
911 Calls 77.5% 76.6% 76.6% 76.7% 72.7%
Non-Emergency Calls 72.3% 72.7% 72.8% 73.5% 71.1%
Officer-Initiated 98% 98.3% 98.1% 96.7% 96.9%
Figure 3 identifies the number of events by Crime Category over the review period. The total number of events across all categories declined between 2015 and 2019.

Figure 4. Number of Events by Crime Category

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 75 NUMBER OF RESPONDING

PERSONNEL
The number of personnel who responded to CFS varied depending on the event type. Table 9 shows the average number of personnel who responded to a CFS by Crime Category. As expected, when dealing with a call that is more serious in nature, the average number of responding officers was higher than for a less serious event. The average number of responding personnel across all event types was 2.4.

Table 9. Responding Personnel by Crime Category
Non-Criminal Misdemeanor Non-Violent
Felony
Serious Violent
Felony
2015 1.8 1.7 1.9 4.2
2016 1.8 1.7 1.7 4.5
2017 1.8 1.7 1.9 4.4
2018 1.7 1.7 1.8 3.7
2019 1.7 1.7 1.9 3.8
Time Spent Responding to Calls
Tables 10 and 11 outline the total amount of time spent on CFS by Crime Category. In determining the time spent on event response, NICJR analyzed two time periods. First, the time period beginning when an officer arrived on-scene to when the officer closed or “cleared” the call and was back “in-service” and able to take other calls. Using this methodology, NICJR was able to identify how much time officers actually spent handling a specific call. An alternate and more comprehensive view of officer response time accounts for the time from event initiation to close.

Table 10. Time Spent Responding to Events, On-Scene to Close Crime Category T otal Hours Arrival
to Close
Average Hours
Per Event
Proportion of T otal
Officer Time
Non-Criminal 98,119 .38 52.3%
Misdemeanor 20,414 .53 10.9%
Non-Violent Felony 33,836 .79 18.0%
Serious Violent Felony 35,275 .74 6.9%
Grand Total 187,644 .61 100.0%
Note* Excludes calls with missing on-scene or clear times.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 76 Table 11. Time Spent Responding to Events, Initiation to Close Crime Category T otal Hours
Initiation to Close
Average Hours
Per Event
Proportion of T otal
Officer Time
Non-Criminal 266,832 1.0 42.1%
Misdemeanor 120,063 2.9 18.9%
Non-Violent Felony 161,656 4.8 25.5%
Serious Violent Felony 85,703 2.5 13.5%
Grand Total 634,254 3.4 100.0%
Note* Excludes calls with missing on-scene or clear times.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 77 NICJR CERN CATEGORIZATION
In our work to Reimagine Public Safety and transform policing, NICJR has developed a tiered dispatch system to provide alternatives to police response to CFS, increase public safety, and improve the quality of emergency response. This model, the Community Emergency Response Network (CERN), builds upon NICJR’s CFS classification structure.

Once each call type is associated with one of NICJR’s four CFS Categories, an additional step is taken to do a default assignment of CFS to CERN Tiers as follows:

Figure 5. Tiered Dispatch
CERN default Tier assignments for the 2015-2019 BPD CFS analyzed are outlined below.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 78 Table 12. CERN Tier Default Assignment Table
Crime
Category CERN BPD % of Call
Types
# of Call Types
in Each Tier
Tier 1 Only 50% 92
Tier 2 Lead Present 14% 25
Tier 3 Present Lead 9% 16
Tier 4 Only 27% 50
Default Tier Assignment Modified Based on Arrest Data and Other Factors A. Arrest Rates
Subsequent to the default classification, NICJR examines arrest data to determine if adjustments to default Tier assignments are warranted. Most typically, this results in CFS “moving up” a Tier based on the likelihood of arrest. The arrest analysis includes the identification of the overall jurisdiction arrest rate, as well as the high-end of that rate, below which the vast majority of CFS arrest rates fall. For Berkeley, 10 percent was set as the arrest rate triggering Tier assignment review; only 6 of 91 CFS that resulted in an arrest had an arrest rate in excess of 10 percent in the years 2015 to 2019. Call types with arrest rates that significantly exceed the triggering arrest rate generally moved to higher Tiers. For example, the Non-Criminal CFS warrant service was moved from Tier 1 to Tier 4 based on arrest rate data.

Figure 6. T otal Arrest Rate Count Dispersion Scatterplot

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 79 Table 13. CFS CERN Tier Assignments After Arrest Review Crime
Category CERN BPD % of Call
Types
# of Call Types
in Each Tier
Tier 1 Only 50% 91
Tier 2 Lead Present 13% 24
Tier 3 Present Lead 9% 16
Tier 4 Only 28% 52
B. Alternate Response Warranted
Beyond arrest data, CERN Tier assignment is modified based on NICJR’s assessment of call types that would benefit from an alternate response. Some Serious Violent Felony call types typically move from Tier 4 to Tier 3 pursuant to this aspect of the analysis, in order to allow for a CERN response with an officer leading. For example, the call type assault, gang related has been downgraded from a Tier 4 to a Tier 3 in order to allow the CERN to assist officers involved. Warrants have similarly been downgraded from a Tier 4 to a Tier 3 with this rationale in mind. Conversely, some call types moved from lower to higher Tiers as a result of this aspect of the default Tier assignment modification methodology. Various events that fall under the assist call type, for example, are allocated to Tier 4 even though these CFS are Non-Criminal in nature. The rationale here is that if the BPD is being asked to assist another law enforcement agency, for example, a BPD response is required.

Table 14. CFS CERN Tier Assignments After Alternate Response Review Crime
Category CERN BPD % of Call
Types
# of Call Types
in Each Tier
Tier 1 Only 50% 92
Tier 2 Lead Present 10% 19
Tier 3 Present Lead 18% 33
Tier 4 Only 21% 39
Based on NICJR’s analysis, and as reflected in Table 14, 50 percent of BPD CFS could be handled solely by a community-response, reflecting 76 percent of BPD calls for service.

NICJR appreciates that there may be questions about the assignment of certain call types to Tier 1. Selected Tier 1 event types have been tagged for additional explanation of Tier assignment in that vein; the explanations can be found following in Appendix C.

As a final cut of the data, Table 15 depicts the top ten call types by initiation source and CERN Tier. One hundred percent of the top ten On-View event types, and 80 percent of top ten 911 and Non-Emergency event types, are assigned to CERN Tier 1.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 80 Table 15. T op T en Call Types by Initiation Source and Tier Officer Initiated CERN
Tier 911 Emergency CERN
Tier Non-Emergency Line CERN
Tier
Traffic 1 Disturbance 1 Disturbance 1
Security Check 1 Wireless 911 1 Audible Alarm 1
Pedestrian Stop 1 Ascertain 911 1 Noise Disturbance 1
Officer Flagged Down 1 Welfare Check 1 Welfare Check 1
Suspicious Vehicle 1 Suspicious Circumstances 1 Trespassing 1 Parking Violation 1 Battery 3 Petty Theft 2
Bike Stop 1 Suspicious Person 1 Advice 1
Abandoned Vehicle 1 Family Disturbance 1 Suspicious Circumstances 1 Found Property 1 Petty Theft 2 Parking Violation 1
Disturbance 1 Mental Illness 1 Suspicious Person 1

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 81 RECOMMENDATIONS

AND CONCLUSION
Analysis of BPD CFS data for the period 2015-2019 indicates that over 81 percent of CFS were for Non- Criminal events, and that the non-emergency line was the single largest event generating source. Although the vast majority of CFS during the analysis period were Non-Criminal, an average of 2.4 officers was dispatched for event response. NICJR’s assessment of viable alternate responses indicates that 50 percent of CFS types, representing 76 percent of all calls for service, can be responded to with no BPD involvement, with another 18 percent requiring BPD to be present, but to serve in a support, rather than a lead, role.

With these results in mind, NICJR offers the following recommendations:

Key Recommendations

1. Alternative response options should be developed for the 50 percent of CFS that do not require a law en
forcement response or are appropriate for a dual response by law enforcement and a community-based/ non law enforcement service provider.

Data-Specific Recommendations

2. Develop a mechanism for clear identification of mental health related calls within the data including ones tha
t overlap with homelessness.

3. Pr
ovide a coding element in the data that allows a researcher or analyst to identify those types of calls that result in a use of force including the type of use of force.

4. Cr
eate a publicly accessible data key for all of the variable code types in BPD data.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 82 APPENDIX H
Berkeley Calls for
Service Analysis
82

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 83 Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ 85 E
merging Non-Enforcement Models of Community Response ...................................................................... 86 E
ugene Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) .......................................................... 86 D
enver Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) ......................................................................................... 87 O
lympia Crisis Response Unit (CRU) .................................................................................................. ............. 87
San Francisco Street Crisis Response Team (SCRT) ...................................................................................... 88 Austin Expanded M
obile Crisis Outreach Team (EMCOT) ......................................................................... 89 H
ouston Crisis Call Diversion (CCD) ................................................................................................... ............. 90
City of Albuquerque Community Safety Department (ACS) ...................................................................... 90 L
os Angeles County Alternative Crisis Response (ACR) .............................................................................. 90 S
eattle Department of Community Safety & Violence Prevention ........................................................... 91 I
thaca Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety .............................................................. 91 T
iered Dispatch & Community Emergency Response Network ................................................................ 91 N
on-Law Enforcement Crime Reduction Strategies ......................................................................................... 93 Ne
w York City Mayor’s Action Plan (MAP) for Neighborhood Safety ..................................................... 93 D
omestic Violence ................................................................................................... ........................................... 94
Commercial Sexual Exploitation ....................................................................................................................... 94 T
raffic Enforcement .................................................................................................. ........................................... 95
Neighbor Disputes ............................................................................................................................................... 96 S
ubstance Use ...................................................................................................................................................... 97 C
ommunity Driven Violence Reduction Strategies .........................................................................................100 G
un Violence Reduction Strategy ..................................................................................................................100 H
ospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs (HVIPs) .........................................................................102 O
ffice of Neighborhood Safety/ Advance Peace ........................................................................................102 S
treet Outreach ................................................................................................... ...............................................103
Police Training ..........................................................................................................................................................105 S
ARA Problem Solving Model ................................................................................................... .....................105
Ethical Policing Is Courageous (EPIC) ................................................................................................... .........105

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 84 Project Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) .....................................................................106 Community
Safety Partnership (Watts) ................................................................................................... ......107
Focused Deterrence ..........................................................................................................................................107 E
limination of Pretextual Stops ......................................................................................................................108 E
thical Society of Police (ESOP) ................................................................................................... ...................108
Chicago PD Black Public Safety Alliance (BPSA) ........................................................................................109 P
olice Diversity ................................................................................................... ................................................109
Warrior vs. Guardian Mentality ................................................................................................... ....................110
Accountability ................................................................................................... ..................................................110
Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights ......................................................................................................110 Qualified I
mmunity ............................................................................................................................................111 A
dditional Accountability Measures of Note ...............................................................................................111 P
rocedural Justice ................................................................................................... ...........................................112
Police Training ..........................................................................................................................................................112 I
mplicit Bias .................................................................................................. .......................................................113 De-escalation ......................................................................................................................................................113 C
ommunity Engagement ................................................................................................... ...............................114
Data Driven Risk Management ................................................................................................... ...................114

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 85 INTRODUCTION
As a part of the City of Berkeley’s Reimagining Public Safety process, the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) was commissioned to conduct an assessment of programs and models that increase safety, properly respond to emergencies, reduce crime and violence, and improve policing. The New and Emerging Models of Community Safety and Policing report has been prepared in response to that charge. NICJR submits this report to the Reimagining Public Safety Taskforce (RPSTF) to inform the RPSTF’s development of recommendations for submission to the Berkeley City Council (Council) on alternative responses and police reforms.

The report comprises a brief overview of several examples of Emerging Non-Enforcement Models of Community Response; Non-Law Enforcement Crime Reduction Strategies; Community Driven Violence Reduction Strategies; and Policing Strategies. As hundreds of cities across the country engage in reimagining public safety processes and launching new programs or altering existing models, this report could not possibly be universally comprehensive; it does however provide the RPSTF and the Council with illustrative examples of key options to consider as the City of Berkeley (City) reimagines its public safety system. The programs and strategies featured in this report were selected based on a number of factors including relationship to the core pillars of NICJR’s reimagining framework: Reduce, Improve, Reinvest; level of institutionalization and track record; City of Berkeley staff and RPSTF request; and relevance to particular reform efforts underway or likely to be underway in Berkeley.

Note that one aspect of police reform, relating specifically to police oversight, is not directly addressed in this report. Review of these bodies was not included due to the City’s new Police Accountability Board, approved overwhelmingly by the voters in November 2020.

The Berkeley Police Accountability Board will be one of the most expansive and progressive of its kind in the country when launched in the summer of 2021.

NICJR’s second commissioned report for the City, Alternative Responses to Law Enforcement, will draw from and build upon several of the new and emerging models outlined herein.

This report last updated October 2021. Due to the evolving nature of these models, information may be outdated.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 86 Police departments receive a large volume of 911 calls or other Calls for Service (CFS) requesting emergency
response. In the past several decades policing has
evolved from officers walking beats to departments
primarily responding to CFS with patrol officers in
squad cars. A number of new assessments of these
CFS have revealed that a majority are low-level or
even non-criminal in nature, like noise complaints,
abandoned cars, and petty theft. Multiple analyses
have estimated that less than 2 percent of CFS
are for violent incidents.
1,2 Retired Chicago police
officer David Franco explains “We spend entire shifts
dealing with noncriminal matters from disturbance
and suspicious person calls…With so many low-level
issues put on our shoulders, police cannot prioritize
the serious crimes.”
3 In addition to responding to a high volume of low-
level and non-criminal 911 CFS, police have also been
increasingly asked to respond to people experiencing
mental health crises. Many of these encounters have
resulted in uses of force by police, including deadly
officer involved shootings. A number of the emerging
examples of effective community driven crime
reduction and emergency response models focus
specifically on mental health incidents.

Eugene Crisis Assistance Helping Out on
the Streets (CAHOOTS)
Crisis Assistance Helping Out on The Streets, or
CAHOOTS, is a mobile emergency intervention
1 https:/ /www.vera.org/downloads/publications/
understanding-police-enforcement-911-analysis.pdf#page=134 2 https:/ /www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/upshot/unrest-
police-time-violent-crime.html
3 https:/ /chicago.suntimes.com/2020/12/9/22166229/
chicago-police-department-911-calls-civilian-community- responders-cpd

EMERGING NON-

ENFORCEMENT MODELS OF

COMMUNITY RESPONSE
service established in 1989 in Eugene, Oregon.4 This
program is free and readily available twenty-four
hours a day for mental health and other non-violent
related calls.
5 CAHOOTS is directed by the White Bird
Clinic, a regional health center in partnership with the City of Eugene. Each CAHOOTS unit is comprised of
an emergency medical technician (EMT) and a mental
health service provider.
6 CAHOOTS staff are required to go through 40 hours
of classroom education and over 500 hours of field
work that is supervised by a qualified guide. Their
education consists of de-escalation methods and
emergency response services. CAHOOTS personnel
are able to perform wellness checks, offer mental
health services and substance use resources,
administer medical aid, and provide mediation
assistance.
7 More than 60 percent of CAHOOTS clients are
experiencing homelessness and nearly 30 percent
have serious mental illness. CAHOOTS had some
level of involvement in nearly 21,000 public-initiated
CFS in 2019, with the number of calls having steadily
increased since the program’s inception. Among all
adults involved with CAHOOTS, the average age was

45.5 years.

Numerous evaluations have shown consistent, robust
results for the CAHOOTS program. Approximately
5-8 percent of calls are diverted from the police to
CAHOOTS, comprising nearly 14,000 calls annually
that CAHOOTS alone responds to annually, according
4 Id.
5 https:/ /www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-
justice/reports/2019/10/02/475220/neighborhoodstat-
strengthening-public-safety-community-empowerment/
6 https:/ /www.mentalhealthportland.org/wp-content/
uploads/2019/05/2018CAHOOTSBROCHURE.pdf
7 https:/ /www.mentalhealthportland.org/wp-content/
uploads/2019/05/2018CAHOOTSBROCHURE.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 87 to an analysis of 2019 CFS. Of these, only 2.2 percent necessitated backup or police involvement. 8 The
program costs approximately $2 million annually and
generates an estimated $8.5 million in savings for the
Eugene Police Department along with an additional
$2.9 million in savings for other city government
agencies.
9,10
Several cities have explored or are currently
implementing replications of CAHOOTS. In Oakland,
the city is preparing to launch the Mobile Assistance
Community Responders of Oakland (MACRO)
initiative.
11 The pilot program will be managed by
the Oakland Fire Department and will be available
twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week
in two-person teams.
12 The City of Oakland has
allocated $4.5 million for the year 2022-2023 along
with $10 million in other funding. The program is
projected to pilot in East Oakland neighborhoods
anywhere from November 2021 to February 2022.
13 Denver Support T eam
Assisted Response (STAR)
Based on the CAHOOTS program in Eugene,
Oregon, STAR is a community responder model
created in 2020. STAR is a joint effort between
many stakeholders, including the Denver Police
Department (DPD), Denver’s Paramedic Division,
Mental Health Center of Denver, and community-
based organizations. STAR provides direct, emergency
response to residents of the community who are
experiencing difficulties connected to mental health,
poverty, homelessness, or substance use. The STAR
transport vehicle operates seven days a week from
6 AM to 10 PM.
14 The time frame of operation was
8 https:/ /www.eugene-or.gov/DocumentCenter/View/56717/ CAHOOTS-Program-Analysis
9 https:/ /www.vera.org/behavioral-health-crisis-alternatives/ cahoots
10 https:/ /www.mentalhealthportland.org/wp-content/
uploads/2019/05/2018CAHOOTSBROCHURE.pdf
11 https:/ /urbanstrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ USC-MACRO-REPORT-6_10_20.pdf
12 https:/ /abc7news.com/macro-oakland-civilian-crisis- response-team-mental-health-police-dept/10430680/
13 https:/ /www.ktvu.com/news/oakland-leaders-push-to-
start-urgently-needed-macro-program-create-oversight
14 https:/ /denver.cbslocal.com/2021/08/31/star-program- mental-health-denver-police/
chosen based on an analysis of CFS data.15 STAR unit
staff are made up of unarmed personnel, with each
team including a mental health service provider and
a paramedic.
16 Before the implementation of STAR, calls to 911
were either transmitted to the DPD or the hospital
system. The majority of calls (68 percent) routed to
STAR concerned individuals that were experiencing
homelessness. Around 41 percent of individuals
who STAR had been involved with were referred to
additional services by the STAR unit staff.
17 In just half a year after the program was established, the STAR unit had addressed 748 calls. The DPD
was never called to support the unit in responding to
these CFS. Moreover, there were no arrests made in
any of the calls evaluated during the initial six months of program operation. To expand the program, the
City of Denver has approved $1 million from the
City’s supplemental fund to go along with the already
allocated $1.4 million in the original 2021 budget.
18 Olympia Crisis Response Unit (CRU)
Incorporating both CAHOOTS principles and crisis
intervention teams, the Crisis Response Unit (CRU)
was implemented in Olympia, Washington in April
2019, as a result of a 2017 citywide safety measure
that allocated an initial half million dollars for an
improved crisis response model. The Olympia Police
Department (OPD) contracted with a community-
based organization to serve as a new option for
behavioral health calls for service. The CRU team
consists of six mental health professionals that operate in pairs. Along with a state certification in behavioral health, CRU staff must undergo training that includes
police patrol exposure, community engagement, and
education about available community support.
19 15 https:/ /wp-denverite.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/ uploads/sites/4/2021/02/STAR_Pilot_6_Month_Evaluation_
FINAL-REPORT.pdf
16 https:/ /www.9news.com/article/news/denver-star-
program-results-police/73-90e50e08-94c5-474d-8e94-
926d42f8f41d
17 Id.
18 https:/ /denver.cbslocal.com/2021/08/31/star-program- mental-health-denver-police/
19 https:/ /www.vera.org/behavioral-health-crisis-alternatives/ cru-and-familiar-faces

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 88 CRU operates from 7 AM to 8:40 PM Monday
through Thursday and 10 AM to 8:40 PM Friday
through Sunday, supplying clients with supports such
as mediation, housing assistance, and referrals to
additional services.
20 Police lines of communication
are utilized by CRU staff to identify situations that
necessitate CRU response. The City’s 911 operations
hub and law enforcement personnel can also refer
callers directly to CRU. Often, 911 callers request
CRU assistance specifically, as the team has fostered
strong community ties. Moreover, a significant
portion of calls for service referred to CRU originate
from community-based service providers, as opposed
to the 911 system itself. When CRU staff encounter
an individual the team has been called on to support
multiple times, they refer the individual to Familiar
Faces, a peer navigation program.
21 Most individuals who were assisted by CRU were
experiencing homelessness or mental health issues
at the time of service. Out of the 511 calls CRU
engaged with from April to June of 2020, OPD was
20 https:/ /www.olympiawa.gov/services/police_department/ crisis_response___peer_navigators.php
21 https:/ /www.vera.org/behavioral-health-crisis-alternatives/ cru-and-familiar-faces
only needed 86 times. Establishing and maintaining
trust between CRU and residents is an essential
part of the initiative.
22 Post-implementation surveys
show that many police officers became advocates of
the model after seeing the program in action for six
months.

San Francisco Street Crisis Response
T eam (SCRT)
The City and County of San Francisco has implemented
a pilot alternative response program for individuals
experiencing a behavioral health crisis. The San
Francisco Fire Department, in conjunction with the
Department of Public Health and the Department
of Emergency Management, responds to 911 calls
related to these issues via Street Crisis Response
Teams (SCRT). Street Crisis Response Teams include
a community paramedic, behavioral clinician, and
peer specialist.
23 Currently, there are six teams that
provide an around-the-clock response.24
22 https:/ /www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/ reports/2020/10/28/492492/community-responder-model/
23 https:/ /sf.gov/street-crisis-response-team
24 https:/ /sf.gov/sites/default/files/2021-10/SCRT%20
September%20Update%20%281%29.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 89 SCRT collaborated with community-based
organizations including RAMS, Inc. (Richmond Area
Multi-Services) and HealthRIGHT360 to ensure that
community providers and local residents would be
able to provide feedback and input about the new
program.
25 The proposed SCRT budget for fiscal
year 2021-2022 is approximately $13.5 million,
which includes staff training and team expansion.

An evaluation of the pilot program place is currently
underway.
26 When 911 calls come into the dispatch center that
are determined to be appropriate for SCRT, SCRT
is dispatched; a team responds on average in fifteen
minutes. No calls for service routed to SCRT required
police action or backup in the first two months of
the pilot. Approximately 74 percent of individuals
assisted by SCRT had their issues resolved, whether
it be through transfers to additional supports or de-
escalation techniques.
27 Initial analyses show that
SCRT could respond to up to 17,000 behavioral health
calls each year. Because of the small scope of the initial pilot, only 20 percent of behavioral health calls received during the first two months of implementation were
able to be responded to by the SCRT.

Austin Expanded Mobile Crisis
Outreach T eam (EMCOT)
In order to reduce the burden on the Austin Police
Department (APD) associated with mental health
calls, the City of Austin, Texas established the
Expanded Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (EMCOT) in
conjunction with Integral Care, the City’s community-
based mental health service provider. EMCOT assists
individuals undergoing a behavioral or mental health
crisis. Agencies such as APD or the Sheriff’s Office
are able to call for EMCOT services by way of the
911 dispatch hub. EMCOT provides its clients with
supports in the form of therapy, life coaching,
rehabilitation, and other services.
28 Since its establishment in 2013, EMCOT has assisted
6,859 clients. The most recently available data is
25 https:/ /sf.gov/street-crisis-response-team
26 https:/ /www.sfdph.org/dph/files/IWG/SCRT_IWG_Issue_ Brief_FINAL.pdf
27 Id.
28 https:/ /www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.
cfm?id=302634
from FY2017, which shows that EMCOT responded
to 3,244 CFS, at a rate of approximately 9 times per
day. Each client was served for an average of 21 days
and provided three different types of supports. In
general, post-crisis services are available for up to 3 months after initial contact.
29 Integral Care reported
that 86 percent of calls routed to a mental health
response did not require police backup.
30 EMCOT is currently available from 8AM to 12AM
Monday through Friday and 10AM to 8PM on
Saturday and Sunday.
31 With the additional funding,
EMCOT is now projected to provide around-the-
clock availability for calls for service. Expansion of
telehealth services for the program is also included
in the new funding.
32 For all CFS involving EMCOT,

85.4 percent were handled without police officers.33
In 2020, a new dispatch system was established in
Austin and a mental health paraprofessional was
permanently stationed in the 911 dispatch center.

Callers to 911 now have the option to request
mental health services instead of police.
34 If the
operator determines the caller would benefit from
these supports, the call is handed over to a mental
health professional. If a clinician is unavailable at the time, an EMCOT staff member is deployed. Currently,
the clinicians are present all week for a set number
of hours each day. This initiative was funded by the
reallocation of $11 million from the Austin Police
Department’s budget. The EMCOT budget itself was
also recently increased to $3.15 million, a 75 percent
increase in funding for the program.
35+
29 Id.
30 https:/ /www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/new-911-call- option-offers-direct-mental-health-help-that-one-attorney- says-may-have-saved-one-familys-son/
31 https:/ /www.fox7austin.com/news/crisis-counselors-
responding-to-more-mental-health-calls-in-austin
32 http:/ /www.austintexas.gov/edims/pio/document.
cfm?id=320044
33 https:/ /www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2020/08/integral- care-set-to-address-most-mental-health-emergency-calls- without-involving-apd/
34 https:/ /www.kvue.com/article/news/health/apd-adds-
mental-health-services-to-911-answering-script/269-
e7dde2e6-4a65-4d5c-a2a7-a26e57110a81
35 https:/ /www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2020/08/integral- care-set-to-address-most-mental-health-emergency-calls- without-involving-apd/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 90 Houston Crisis Call Diversion (CCD)
The Crisis Call Diversion (CCD) program in Houston,
Texas is a joint effort between the fire department,
police department, emergency center, and mental
health service providers in the area. In 2017, the
Houston Police Department (HPD) received 37,032
calls for service that involved behavior or mental
health problems. When calls for service come in,
dispatchers flag any that would necessitate CCD
response-- non-emergency behavioral and mental
health calls. Once flagged, these callers are connected to CCD counselors. The CCD counselor evaluates
the situation and the mental health of the caller and
attempts to provide assistance over the phone.
36 If additional community response or police presence
is needed, the dispatcher can request that as well.

The call is taken off the police dispatch line when the CCD dispatcher verifies that the CCD team is on the
way to the scene. CCD teams can contact the caller
while traveling to the specified location in order to
collect as much relevant information as possible.

Upon examination of the data, each rerouted call
generates savings of nearly $4,500. The CCD costs
approximately $460,000 annually and is estimated to
generate over $860,000 in annual savings.
37 City of Albuquerque Community
Safety Department (ACS)
The City of Albuquerque’s recently created
Community Safety Department (ACS) serves as the
third branch of Albuquerque’s first responder system.

The ACS responds to non-violent and non-medical
Calls for Service (CFS) related to mental health,
substance use, and homelessness as well as non-
behavioral issues such as abandoned vehicles and
needle pickups.
38 Once a call is received through 911,
it is routed to the Albuquerque Police Department
(APD) Dispatch Center, who will then facilitate the
deployment of ACS responders.

ACS’ Field Response Unit is made up of four types
of responders: Behavioral Health Responders,
36 https:/ /www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/ reports/2020/10/28/492492/community-responder-model/
37 https:/ /www.houstoncit.org/ccd/
38 https:/ /www.cabq.gov/acs/our-role
Community Responders, Street Outreach and
Resource Coordinators, and Mobile Crisis Team
(MCT) Licensed Clinicians.

Each responder’s role is as follows
39:
• Community
Responders: provide support to
community members related to inebriation,
homelessness, addiction, mental health as well as
minor injuries, incapacitation, abandoned vehicles,
non-injury accidents, and needle pickups
•
Beha
vioral Health Responders: respond in pairs
to requests for assistance regarding mental and
behavioral health, inebriation, homelessness,
addiction, chronic mental illness, etc.
•
Str
eet Outreach and Resource Coordinators:
provide street outreach to individuals experiencing
homelessness in encampments
•
Mobile
Crisis Team (MCT) Licensed Clinicians:
co-respond to high acuity mental and behavioral
health emergencies
In its first operational month (August 30- October 1,
2021), ACS responders addressed an average of nine
calls daily, for a total of 212 CFS. 50% of those CFS
were provided with either resources, direct services,
or transportation. The average response time for ACS
responders is slightly over 14 minutes.
40 Once ACS is
fully scaled, as many as 3,000 calls could be diverted
per month.
41 Los Angeles County Alternative
Crisis Response (ACR)
The LA County Alternative Crisis Response is a
collaboration between the Department of Mental
Health (DMH) and the Chief Executive Office’s (CEO)
Alternatives to Incarceration Initiative to address
gaps within LA County’s current crisis response
system.
42 Set to rollout in July of 2022, preliminary
recommendations put forth to the Los Angeles
County Board of Supervisors include designing
and implementing a Regional Crisis Call Network,
39 https:/ /www.cabq.gov/acs/our-response
40 https:/ /www.cabq.gov/mayor/news/albuquerque-
community-safety-responders-hit-the-streets
41 https:/ /www.abqjournal.com/2428380/abqs-community-
safety-department-launches-patrols.html
42 https:/ /ceo.lacounty.gov/ati/alternative-crisis-response/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 91 instituting a crisis mobile response team, and
increasing behavioral health bed capacity.43
In accordance with recent ACR recommendations, the
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) expanded its
Didi Hirsch Pilot, which diverts 911 behavioral health
CFS to the Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center.

The ACR will utilize a 988 number for behavioral
health emergency needs also overseen by the Didi
Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center.
44 Seattle Department of Community
Safety & Violence Prevention
The Seattle City Council passed Resolution 31962
in August of 2020, which lays the foundation for
a civilian led Department of Community Safety &
Violence Prevention. This Department, which is
expected to be up and running by the fourth quarter
of 2021, will assume responsibility for manning 911
call lines, replacing police operators with “civilian-
controlled systems.”
45 Ithaca Department of Community
Solutions and Public Safety
In February 2021, the Mayor of Ithaca, New York,
proposed the creation of a new Department of
Community Solutions and Public Safety that would
replace the Ithaca Police Department.
46 This new
department would include both armed officers
and unarmed workers who focus on crime and
neighborhood service. The department would work
with a new alternative service provider that provides
non-law enforcement crisis intervention and support.

All current police officers would have to reapply to
be employed by the new department.

The proposal is a part of the Ithaca Reimagining Public Safety Collaborative and a response to the New York
State Governor’s Executive Order mandating every
43 https:/ /file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/149254.pdf 44 https:/ /file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/149282.pdf 45 https:/ /www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/detail/ seattle-city-council-passes-cuts-to-police-budget-and-
resolution-to-establish-civilian-led-department-of-community- safety-violence-prevention
46 https:/ /www.gq.com/story/ithaca-mayor-svante-myrick- police-reform
police department in the state to submit a reform
plan by April 1, 2021.47
The new Department of Community Solutions and
Public Safety would be charged with implementing
an alternative to the police response system and
establishing a pilot program for non-emergency
calls, implementing a culturally responsive training
program that includes de-escalation techniques, and
developing a comprehensive community healing plan.

Other initiatives proposed under this strategy include
standardizing a data review process on traffic stops
as well as consistent reviews of officers’ body camera
footage. Minor grievances would be outsourced
to neighborhood mediation centers. Adolescent
engagement support programs would be broadened
in order to reach those at high risk of violence. The
new personnel of the Department would be recruited
from a more varied body of applicants as well to reflect the residents of the city in which they operate.
48 In order to oversee the recommendations made
by the Mayor and Ithaca Reimagining Public Safety
Collaborative, the City of Ithaca has arranged for
the creation of an operations hub known as the
Community Justice Center (CJC). The CJC will have
its own full-time staff including but not limited to a
project manager and a data analyst. The CJC is set
to give progress updates to the Tompkins County
Legislature and the City of Ithaca Mayor to ensure
each recommendation is properly addressed.
49 Tiered Dispatch & Community
Emergency Response Network
NICJR has developed a tiered dispatch model for
CFS, one that includes a robust, structured, and
well-trained team of community responders – a
Community Emergency Response Network (CERN).

Pursuant to the NICJR methodology, CFS are initially
allocated to CERN Tiers based on a standardized
approach outlined below:
47 https:/ /www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-
announces-new-guidance-police-reform-collaborative-
reinvent-and-modernize
48 https:/ /drive.google.com/drive/u/0/
folders/1NTZ6j6WRze75m5fTuf-wC4BgC-1ddJnO
49 Id.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 92 Tier 1:

CERN dispatched only
Event type: Non-Criminal
Tier 2:

CERN lead, with officers present
Event type: Misdemeanor with low potential
of violence
If CERN arrives on scene and determines
there is low potential for violence and an arrest
is unnecessary or unlikely, officers leave.

Tier 3:

Officers lead, with CERN present
Type 4:

Officers only
Event type: Non-Violent Felony or an arrest
is likely
If officers arrive on scene and determine
there is no need for an arrest or an arrest is
unlikely and violence is unlikely, officers step
back and CERN takes the lead.

Event type: Serious Violent Felony or high
likelihood of arrest

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 93 NON-LAW

ENFORCEMENT CRIME

REDUCTION STRATEGIES
New York City Mayor’s Action Plan
(MAP) for Neighborhood Safety
The Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety
(MAP) was launched in 2014 in fifteen New York
City Housing Authority (NYCHA) properties.

MAP was designed to foster productive dialogue
between local residents and law enforcement
agencies, address physical disorganization, and
bolster pro-social community bonds. Disorganized
neighborhoods are characterized by dense poverty,
a lack of social mobility, and underdeveloped
community connections. These factors contribute to
circumstances that make a given neighborhood more
vulnerable to crime and violence.
50 The 15 housing
developments chosen for the program account for
approximately 20 percent of violence in NYCHA
housing.
51 MAP’s focal point is NeighborhoodStat, a
process that allows local officials and residents
to communicate directly with each other. Issues
in each particular housing development are
addressed in local meetings which involve multiple
stakeholders, including residents, community-based
organizations, law enforcement, and government
officials. NeighborhoodStat allows residents to have
a say in the way New York City (NYC) allocates its
public safety resources. The process is facilitated
by a team of 15 community members who conduct
polls and interviews to determine what the residents
feel are the biggest issues in their neighborhoods.

NeighborhoodStat also utilizes data analyses
regarding employment, physical structure, access
to resources, and other metrics in developing
its recommendations for key areas of focus. At
50 http:/ /www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/
professionals/oyap/roots/volume5/chapter04_social_disorg anization.aspx
51 https:/ /criminaljustice.cityofnewyork.us/programs/map/

community meetings, this data and other benchmarks
for performance are presented by community-based
partners, allowing for full transparency. Residents
and law enforcement also put forward their concerns
and ideas. Once problems are pinpointed through
meaningful dialogue, residents and NYC officials
come together to generate solutions, which are then
implemented by the Mayor’s Office and assessed
over time.
52 Other initiatives MAP has undertaken include
providing employment and life coaching services
to youth who are at most risk for violence. MAP
also focuses on addressing major chronic disease
determinants, including low physical activity levels
and nutrient-poor diets. Programs such as NYPD
Anti-Violence basketball games and pop-up healthy
food stands have been established. In addition, public
infrastructure has been improved through enhanced
lighting, green spaces, and park improvements.
53 Early evaluations of MAP show promising results for
a reduction in various crimes as well as increased
perception of healthier neighborhoods. Significantly,
misdemeanor offenses against individuals decreased
in developments where residents expressed a
positive change in their neighborhood’s condition.
54 Furthermore, shootings in MAP sites decreased by

17.1 percent in 2015 and 2016 when compared with
non-MAP sites.
55 52 https:/ /www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal- justice/reports/2019/10/02/475220/neighborhoodstat-
strengthening-public-safety-community-empowerment/
53 https:/ /criminaljustice.cityofnewyork.us/programs/map/ 54 https:/ /johnjayrec.nyc/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/
MAP_EvalUpdate06.pdf
55 https:/ /www1.nyc.gov/assets/operations/downloads/pdf/ mmr2016/mayors_action_plan_for_neighborhood_ safety.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 94 Domestic Violence
Every year, an estimated 10 million people in the
US experience domestic and family violence. Often
a cycle of abuse is perpetuated in these situations,
as experience with previous violence is a strong
predictor for future abuse.
56 The financial expense of
domestic and family violence is projected to be $12
billion each year. In Berkeley, approximately 2,000
reports related to domestic violence are registered
annually; the actual number of incidents is probably
much higher.
57 Domestic violence is a difficult and complex problem.

Laws have been established that mandate arrests
even for minor incidents; these same laws have
generated a growing movement of survivors calling
for non-enforcement responses. The challenges here
are significant, as a lack of intervention can lead to
serious injury and death, primarily of women and
transgender women.

An additional complication in domestic violence
work is the retraumatization of survivors that occurs
in the judicial system. When survivors of domestic
violence endeavor to obtain recourse through
the courts, they are often blamed for the abuse
and undergo a disparagement of their character.

Moreover, testimony is often given in an open court
setting, which requires that a survivor recount the
abuse they have undergone while simultaneously
appearing composed in order to credibly convey
their trauma, often in the presence of their abuser.
58 Reliving one’s trauma and facing an abuser can cause feelings of helplessness, anxiety, and PTSD to surface
in the survivor. Unfortunately, retraumatization often
results in a major roadblock for survivors to pursue
justice in domestic violence cases.
59 There is a significant overlap in addressing domestic violence incidence and anti-poverty work, as intimate
partner violence is correlated with devastating
monetary effects on survivors who seek to leave their
abusive situations. Interventions such as economic
education and employment training can both reduce
56 https:/ /www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499891/
57 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Health_ Human_Services/Level_3_-_General/dvfactsheet.pdf
58 https:/ /www.seattletimes.com/opinion/a-justice-system- that-re-traumatizes-assault-survivors/
59 https:/ /arizonalawreview.org/pdf/62-1/62arizlrev81.pdf violence and provide critically necessary financial
support.

Major domestic violence support programs
implemented by the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) include STOP Sexual Violence (SV) and
the Preventing Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).
60 According to the CDC, these strategies focus on
promoting social norms that protect against violence;
teaching skills to prevent SV; providing opportunities, both economic and social, to empower and support
girls and women; creating protective environments;
and supporting victims/survivors to reduce harms.

Research indicates that IPV is most prevalent in
adolescence and young adulthood and then begins
to decline with age, demonstrating the critical
importance of early prevention efforts.
61 Analyses of
these financial support programs have demonstrated
results including increased confidence for survivors
as well as decreases in domestic assault incidences.
62 Another area of focus has been to revisit the
mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence
calls in place in many jurisdictions.
63 Alternatives to
this approach emphasize coordinated community
response teams that maximize the role of community.

An effective model integrates other providers,
including faith leaders and the courts.
64 Commercial Sexual Exploitation
Sexual exploitation of minors has historically been
difficult to adequately address. This is due to a plethora of factors, ranging from difficulty in identifying
adolescents who experience sexual exploitation
to a limited understanding of the various methods
used to traffic children and the best approaches to
engage the victims.
65 Too often, sexually exploited
minors have faced arrest and incarceration instead of
60 http:/ /www.preventconnect.org/2019/08/addressing-
poverty-to-prevent-violence/
61 https:/ /www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/ipv-
technicalpackages.pdf
62 https:/ /vawnet.org/material/economic-empowerment-
domestic-violence-survivors
63 https:/ /opdv.ny.gov/help/fss/part22.html
64 https:/ /www.bwjp.org/our-work/topics/ccr-models.html 65 https:/ /ojjdp.ojp.gov/mpg/literature-review/csec-sex- trafficking.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 95 intervention and support.66 More than 1,000 children are arrested for “prostitution” annually. However,
anywhere from 57,000 to 63,000 individuals are
estimated to be involved in commercial sexual
exploitation in the United States, a disproportionate
number being youth of color.
67 The Vera Institute has produced a screening
procedure for service providers to follow when
encountering an individual who could potentially
be a survivor of sexual exploitation. Consisting of a
thirty-subject questionnaire, the Trafficking Victim
Identification Tool (TVIT), serves to aid in trafficking victim identification. Evaluations have proven that
the tool has high accuracy and validity rates.
68 Health
care providers, social workers, legal aid personnel,
and others can use the screening tool to better
identify those who have experienced commercial
sexual exploitation.
69 Jurisdictions have also begun to halt prosecution of prostitution. In April of 2021, the District Attorney’s Office of Manhattan, New York, announced it would
dismiss all open cases with a prostitution charge.

Prostitution adjacent crimes such as sex trafficking
and soliciting sex workers would still be charged.

The cities of Baltimore, Maryland, and Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, have stopped any prosecution of sex
workers as well.
70 Many community-based organizations have
established programs that outreach, support, and
provide services to minors who have been sexually
exploited. It is critical that community-based service
providers have the requisite training and education
to provide appropriate services and interventions to
this population who have experienced abuse, trauma,
and exploitation. The training should be trauma-
informed, and screeners should be focused on
66 https:/ /www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/
wp/2014/12/05/child-prostitutes-arent-criminals-so-why-do- we-keep-putting-them-in-jail/
67 https:/ /www.vera.org/publications/out-of-the-shadows- identification-of-victims-of-human-trafficking
68 https:/ /www.vera.org/downloads/publications/human-
trafficking-identification-tool-summary-v2.pdf
69 https:/ /www.vera.org/publications/out-of-the-shadows- identification-of-victims-of-human-trafficking
70 https:/ /www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/nyregion/
manhattan-to-stop-prosecuting-prostitution.html
establishing trust with their clients. 71 Organizations like FAIR Girls (Washington, D.C.) and MISSEY
(Oakland, CA) have initiatives that intervene directly
with girls who have been exploited. At MISSEY, case
workers engage at-risk youth in the Alameda County
foster system and offer them support and services
in the form of financial resources, life coaching, and
housing.
72 In Washington DC, young girls that stayed
at the FAIR Girls group home had a 58 percent
higher likelihood of permanently withdrawing from
commercial sexual exploitation when compared with
those who were not provided housing.
73 Traffic Enforcement
Data from The Stanford Open Policing Project shows
that Black men and women are stopped at a higher
rate than white drivers and are more likely to be
71 https:/ /www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/nyregion/
manhattan-to-stop-prosecuting-prostitution.html
72 https:/ /misssey.org/foster-youth-program/
73 https:/ /fairgirls.org/vida-home/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 96 fatally shot during the course of that traffic stop.74 To significantly lessen the exposure of the general public to the police and instead address transportation
violations without law enforcement involvement, a
number of strategies have been employed including:
reallocation of certain traffic services to non-law
enforcement organizations; the implementation of
automation; and decriminalization.

In the City of Berkeley, the Berkeley Police
Department (BPD) performed approximately 11,000
traffic stops in 2019. Black people were stopped by
BPD at a rate 4.3 times than their representative
population in the City.
75 This disproportionate traffic
enforcement highlights the need to change policies
and practices regarding traffic stops.

Reducing the use of police officers in traffic
enforcement is one potential solution; this approach
can be greatly enabled by technology. Speeding and
red-light violations are two areas that constitute
a large portion of traffic enforcement. There are
19 states that allow speed cameras, and 21 states
that allow red-light camera usage.
76 Implementing
automatic speed citations along with red-light
cameras could allow for a reduction of up to 20
percent of police interactions. It is important to
note that although this technology is successful at
reducing the need for police, it can generate other
issues such as enforcement problems and privacy
concerns.
77 As Berkeley is considering through the Berkeley
Department of Transportation (BerkDOT) initiative,
transferring traffic enforcement duties to an agency
of unarmed staff can limit problematic police
contact with motorists. Analogous programs have
been proposed in Cambridge, Massachusetts; St.

Louis Park, Minnesota; and Montgomery County,
Maryland.
78 In 2019, automation-based traffic
enforcement capabilities were transferred to the
74 https:/ /openpolicing.stanford.edu/findings/
75 https:/ /sites.google.com/view/saferstreetsberkeley/home 76 https:/ /www.ghsa.org/state-laws/issues/speed%20and%20 red%20light%20cameras
77 https:/ /www.governing.com/archive/gov-cities-hit-brakes- red-light-cameras.html
78 https:/ /theappeal.org/traffic-enforcement-without-police/ Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C.79
New York’s Attorney General proposed the end of
the NYPD’s involvement with traffic enforcement in
September of 2020.
80 Another potential strategy can be illustrated by a
pilot program in Staten Island, New York, aimed at
reducing the number of calls for service related to
minor collision.
81 When a call comes in regarding a
collision, dispatch will determine if the collision is
minor or serious enough to merit police response.

If a collision is deemed to be minor, all individuals
involved in the crash simply complete a collision
report and then exchange contact and identification
information.
82 Lastly, ending pre-textual stops for minor traffic
infractions, as proposed by the Berkeley Mayor’s Fair
and Impartial Policing Workgroup and approved by
the City Council in March 2021, could significantly
reduce traffic stops. This issue is addressed in more
detail in the Policing section of this report.

Neighbor Disputes
Police officers are frequently the first personnel
called in when there is a dispute, even a minor one,
between neighbors. These events can encompass a
broad array of issues, from property damage, blocking
a driveway, to noise complaints. Even if police do
intervene, the solution is often only temporarily,
rather than resolving the root problems that caused
the conflict. Police response wastes time and
resources and can lead to escalation and violence.

Furthermore, neighbor conflicts in low-income and
communities of color have a higher likelihood of
resulting in an arrest.
83 79 https:/ /www.washingtonpost.com/
transportation/2019/10/01/bowser-does-an-end-run-
around-dc-council-transfers-speed-red-light-camera-
program-ddot/https:/ /www.washingtonpost.com/
transportation/2019/10/01/bowser-does-an-end-run-around- dc-council-transfers-speed-red-light-camera-program-ddot/ 80 https:/ /apnews.com/article/bronx-arrests-traffic-archive- new-york-c93fa5fc03f25c2b625d36e4c75d1691
81 https:/ /www.silive.com/news/2019/03/nypd-dont-call- 911-for-crashes-without-injuries.html
82 https:/ /abc7ny.com/traffic/nypd-rolls-out-pilot-program- wont-respond-to-every-accident/5205383/
83 https:/ /mdmediation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/ Giving_Police_and_Courts_a_Break.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 97 Community mediation is a strategy that has proven
to reduce police calls for service and decrease the
burden on police for nuisance complaints. Several
cities have implemented community mediation
programs to utilize non-enforcement options to
resolve neighbor disputes. In areas where community
mediation is prioritized, neighborhood social ties
are strengthened, and communities are more
harmonious. Moreover, residents who participate
in community mediation use less court and police
resources. In a study analyzing mediation’s effect in
Baltimore, Maryland, for example, researchers found
that community mediation for neighbor disputes
decreased calls for service to the Baltimore Police
Department. For a single mediation session, the
Baltimore Police Department produced cost savings
between $208 and $1,649. Among individuals who
went through a mediation, the likelihood of arrest
and prosecution was lower when compared to those
who did not participate.
84 Neighbor disputes can also be triaged through a
311 system. Priority is given to complaints based
on frequency and the potential to escalate into
violence. Outsourcing responses to neighborhood
organizations and associations that can operate in
conjunction with police officers can be valuable in
order to promote a peaceful resolution to violent
disputes. These organizations can also conduct
sweeps through neighborhoods in order to gain
valuable information regarding any disputes.
85 Substance Use
In 2016, 25 percent of lethal law enforcement
shootings in the US affected individuals undergoing
behavioral health or substance use crises.
86 Data
regarding drug-related charges demonstrates
that Black and LGBTQIA+ individuals are
disproportionately charged and experience lower
rates of treatment.
87,88 In addition, calls for service
84 Id.
85 https:/ /popcenter.asu.edu/sites/default/files/2020-spi_ spotlight_series-retailiatoryviolentdisputes_final.pdf
86 https:/ /www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police- shootings-2016/
87 https:/ /www.americanprogress.org/press/
release/2016/02/23/131547/release-broken-criminal-justice- system-disproportionately-targets-and-harms-lgbt-people/ 88 https:/ /www.marylandaddictionrecovery.com/impact-of- addiction-african-american-community/
stemming from substance use place an undue strain
on emergency departments as well as jails, both of
which are often ill-equipped to handle substance
use crises. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, increases
in drug and opioid related overdoses have been
observed across California, underscoring the need
for adequate substance use response.
89 It is important to note that this “adequate response” must reflect the reality that successfully addressing
substance use is about management, not halting usage.

The establishment of safe injection facilities (SIF) is a potential avenue for reduction of drug-related deaths.

These facilities are supervised areas that allow the
uptake of drugs in a safe and hygienic setting.

There are a plethora of positive impacts that stem from SIF implementation. SIF have prevented thousands
of overdoses with most reporting zero overdose
fatalities.
90 Studies have noted a significant decrease
in transference of blood-borne diseases such as
HIV and Hepatitis B/C at SIFs due to their clinical
standards.
91 An increase in uptake of treatment for
substance use disorder was also observed after SIF
involvement. An evaluation done by the Vancouver
Mental Health and Addiction Services demonstrated
a significant curtailment of drug injection in public
areas as well as a reduction in associated litter post-SIF implementation.
92 SIFs have also been shown to reduce
emergency ambulatory calls for service while open.93
San Francisco recently approved a bill that would
implement safe injection facilities in the City.
94 The
Department of Public Health would oversee the
establishment of two pilot SIFs. The City estimates
that cost savings generated by reducing HIV and
Hepatitis C caseload would be approximately $3.5
million annually.
95 89 https:/ /www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2020-12/issue- brief-increases-in-opioid-related-overdose.pdf
90 https:/ /www.ohtn.on.ca/rapid-response-83-supervised- injection/
91 Id.
92 http:/ /www.healthyalamedacounty.org/promisepractice/ index/view?pid=3840c
93 https:/ /kingcounty.gov/~/media/depts/community-human- services/behavioral-health-recovery/documents/herointf/ Safe_Consumption_Facilities_Evidence_Models.ashx?la=en
94 https:/ /www.ktvu.com/news/san-francisco-supervisors- unanimously-approve-legislation-for-safe-injection-sites 95 https:/ /www.glide.org/safe-injection-sites-are-coming-to- san-francisco/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 98 Syringe services programs (SSPs), also known as
Needle Exchange Programs (NEPs), are a harm
reduction mechanism that offer individuals with
hygienic and safe needles and syringes along with
referrals to other services. These services can
include further medical care, treatment programs,
and therapy access. SSPs also provide testing for
diseases, vaccinations, and naloxone dispensation.

A critical component of SSPs is the communication
of education regarding overdose signs and proper
injection technique. They are typically overseen
by local public health departments that work in
conjunction with community-based organizations.
96 Numerous benefits have been linked to proper SSP
implementation including decreases in the rate of
drug use frequency when compared with individuals
who have never utilized an SSP.
97 Sterile equipment
provided by SSPs is also associated with a reduction in bloodborne infections, sexually transmitted diseases,
and other health issues. When an SSP is instituted in
a community, there is no corresponding increase in
drug usage or crime in the area.
98 The Needle Exchange Program in Baltimore,
Maryland provides clean needles to intravenous
drug users in order to reduce related health issues.

There are currently 16 locations across Baltimore,
with plans for expansion.
99 An evaluation of the
intervention program found that participation in the
program was correlated with a 33 percent increase in
the likelihood of entering treatment.
100
Berkeley’s Needle Exchange Emergency Distribution
(NEED) is an SSP operating out of a mobile van
created in 1990. Naloxone training, fentanyl testing
strips, and screening for HIV/ AIDS are all offered
via one of NEED’s three sites.
101 Berkeley’s NEED
program is currently funded by grants from the City
of Berkeley and Alameda County.
102
96 https:/ /www.cdc.gov/ssp/syringe-services-programs-faq. html
97 https:/ /pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11027894/
98 https:/ /www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446444/ 99 https:/ /health.baltimorecity.gov/hiv-std-services/
community-risk-reduction
100 https:/ /pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16364566/
101 https:/ /www.berkeleyneed.org/sp/index.php
102 https:/ /pha.berkeley.edu/2019/12/01/the-needle-
exchange-program-crisis/
Street outreach programs that connect intravenous
drug users and individuals suffering from substance
use disorder to services are also beneficial.

The City of San Francisco is launching a sobering
site for individuals using methamphetamines. In
non-emergent cases, clients will be transported to
the sobering site and offered medication such as
antipsychotics or sedatives. This site will reduce
the burden on emergency departments and free up
psychiatric services in hospitals.
103 HealthRIGHT
360, a community-based organization, will oversee
the sobering site after it is opened.
104 In order
to recruit clients to the sobering center, the site
will collaborate with San Francisco’s Street Crisis
Response Team (SCRT), referenced in detail in the
Emerging Non-Enforcement Models of Community
Response section of this report.

The Arlington Opiate Outreach Initiative was created
in 2015 in Arlington, Massachusetts. The partnership
brings together social workers, community-based
organizations, health workers, and public health
clinicians housed in the Arlington Police Department
in order to foster relationships with residents of the
community and then connect them to treatment
and supports. Individuals in the community are
identified for possible treatment after frequent police encounters, prior history of drug usage, or previous
hospitalization related to overdoses.
105 Public health
clinicians will then attempt to engage the identified
community member through home visits, contact
with family/ friends, and provision of naloxone kits.

Conversations for Change, a program based in
Dayton, Ohio, is marked by its emphasis on meetings
that serve to engage the community and offer
residents education regarding potential treatment
choices and services. The program is a partnership
between the Dayton Police Department and East
End Community Services, a non-profit, community-
based organization. Individuals are recruited
through an array of avenues, from parole officers to
community-based organizations that are involved
103 https:/ /www.sfdph.org/dph/files/Meth TaskForce/
Meth%20Task%20Force%20Final%20Report_FULL.pdf
104 https:/ /www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/new-
search-launched-for-meth-sobering-center-site/
105 https:/ /icjia.illinois.gov/researchhub/articles/rethinking- law-enforcement-s-role-on-drugs-community-drug-
intervention-and-diversion-efforts#fnref52#fn44

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 99 with substance use disorders. Monetary benefits
in the form of grocery store gift cards are used to
incentivize individuals to attend meetings. Meetings
first involve a direct, one-on-one conversation with
a motivational mediator from the Dayton Mediation
Center about a client’s current status and goals. After this initial conversation, presentations from health
officials and residents with similar lived experiences
are given. Providers finally offer naloxone training to the clients at the meetings.
106 The Conversations for
Change program also includes an SSP.107
A more direct approach to curbing the impact of
substance use disorders on the demand for policing
is decriminalization.

Oregon became the first state in the United
States to decriminalize the possession of all drugs
effective February 2021. Possessing heroin, cocaine,
methamphetamine and other drugs for personal use
is no longer a criminal offense in Oregon.
108
Those drugs are still against the law, as is selling
them. But possession is now a civil – not criminal –
violation that may result in a fine or court-ordered
therapy, not jail.

There are three main arguments for
decriminalization:
106 Id.
107 https:/ /icjia.illinois.gov/researchhub/articles/rethinking- law-enforcement-s-role-on-drugs-community-drug-
intervention-and-diversion-efforts#fnref52#fn46
108 Oregon discussion draws heavily from: https:/ /www. usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-12-10/oregon- just-decriminalized-all-drugs-heres-why-voters-passed-this- groundbreaking-reform
Criminalization has failed
Decriminalization allows
reinvestment in treatment
The drug war disproportionately
impacts people of color3
The reason for punishing drug users is to deter
drug use. But decades of research have found
the deterrent effect of strict criminal punishment
to be small, if it exists at all. This is especially true among young people.

Because criminalizing drugs does not really
prevent drug use, decriminalizing has not
been found to increase it. Portugal, which
decriminalized the personal possession of all
drugs in 2001 in response to high illicit drug
use, has much lower rates of drug use than the
European average. Use of cocaine among young
adults age 15 to 34, for example, is 0.3 percent in
Portugal, compared to 2.1 percent across the EU.

Arresting, prosecuting and imprisoning people
for drug-related crimes is expensive.

The Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimates
that all government drug prohibition-related
expenditures were $47.8 billion in 2016. Money
spent arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating
individuals for drug-related offenses can be
more effectively, from both outcomes and cost
perspectives, reinvested in treatment services.

Another aim of decriminalization is to mitigate
the significant racial and ethnic disparities
associated with drug enforcement.

Illegal drug use is roughly comparable across
races in the U.S. But people of color are
significantly more likely to be searched, arrested
and imprisoned for a drug-related offense.
2 1

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 100

COMMUNITY DRIVEN

VIOLENCE REDUCTION

STRATEGIES
Crime is often concentrated low-income
neighborhoods, with Black and Latinx individuals
disproportionately experiencing higher rates of
violence. These ‘hot spots’ of violent crime experience a complex array of challenges, ranging from high rates
of poverty and incarceration to poor quality education
and a lack of trust in government institutions.

Unfortunately, the effects of exposure to violence are
widespread, affecting the health and development of
not only those directly involved but also that of their families and communities. Neighborhoods with these
characteristics necessitate immediate intervention
to disrupt the cycle of interpersonal violence and its
devastating consequences.
109
There has however been consistent success in a
small number of effective strategies summarized
briefly below and described more comprehensively
in a 2021 NICJR publication, Four Proven Violence
Reduction Strategies. When implemented with
fidelity, these interventions have been successful
at reducing violence, with many initiatives showing
improvements in the first six to twelve months of
implementation.

The four highlighted strategies, Gun Violence
Reduction Strategy, Hospital-Based Violence
Intervention, Office of Neighborhood Safety/
Advance Peace, and Street Outreach – all incorporate
similar best practices:
•
Iden
tifying and focusing on individuals, groups,
and communities at the highest risk of being
involved in violence;
• Emplo
ying Credible Messengers/community
outreach workers to engage those individuals/
groups in a positive and trusting manner; and
109 https:/ /www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/
summer16/highlight2.html
• Providing ongoing services, supports, and
opportunities to high-risk individuals.

T
hese core elements are essential to the success of
any violence intervention strategy.

Gun Violence Reduction Strategy
Gun Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) is known by
many other names: Ceasefire, Focused Deterrence,
and Group Violence Intervention. GVRS is a
comprehensive strategy that utilizes a data-driven
process to identify the individuals and groups at the
highest risk of committing or being involved in gun
violence and deploying effective interventions with
these individuals. Initially developed in Boston, where it was referred to as the “Boston Miracle”, GVRS has
evolved as it has been implemented in cities including
Oakland and Stockton, California, to include more in-
depth and intensive services and supports.
110
Identification of Program Participants
GVRS employs a data-driven process to identify the
individual and groups who are at the very highest
risk of being involved in a shooting. This involves
an initial Gun Violence Problem Analysis, which
provides a thorough examination of the shootings
and homicides in a given city over the past two to
three years in order to produce information about
victim and suspect demographics, group conflicts in
the area, prior history of violence, and general trends. 110 https:/ /www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/06/
bostons-miracle-how-free-nappies-and-a-little-mentoring-are- curbing

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 101
Engagement: Direct and Respectful
Communication
Once high-risk individuals and groups are identified,
the GVRS strategy requires immediate engagement.

This engagement involves direct and respectful
communication to inform identified individuals
of their risk and offering them services. There are
two primary formats for these discussions: Group
meetings, referred to as “Call-Ins” and individual
meetings, sometimes referred to as “Customized
Notifications”. At Call-Ins, the recently identified very high-risk individuals are invited to attend a meeting
with community leaders, law enforcement officials,
formerly incarcerated individuals, survivors of
violence, and service providers. Custom Notifications
convey similar messages about the risk of violence
and the availability of services. However, Custom
Notifications are individual meetings where a high-
ranking police officer and a community leader directly
make contact with an individual at their home or
community.

Provision of Services
Subsequent to a Call-In or a Custom Notification,
individuals identified as being at very high risk of gun violence are directly connected to available services,
supports, and opportunities. The first and primary
service is a positive and trusting relationship with a
Life Coach or Violence Intervention worker, someone
with similar lived experiences as the people they
are serving. These individuals are often known as
Credible Messengers. The Life Coach or Intervention
Worker is an intensive and personal relationship –
which is the most important aspect of the services.

Unlike service brokering based case management,
contact between the Life Coach and the client must
be frequent, flexible, consistent, and on-going for a
long period of time.

In Oakland’s GVRS, clients are also eligible to receive monthly, modest financial incentive stipends for
achieving certain milestones.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 102
Focused Enforcement
One of the overt goals of GVRS is to reduce the
footprint of police by focusing enforcement on
serious and violent crime. For those individuals and
groups who do not respond to the GVRS message and
continue to engage in violence, this means that there
is follow-up supervision and focused enforcement
by police, probation, parole, and prosecutors;
enforcement action is not taken simply for failure to
participate in GVRS programming.

Hospital-Based Violence Intervention
Programs (HVIPs)
Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs
(HVIP), view violence through a public health-
centered lens. Analogous to the spread of an illness,
violence has been shown to proliferate with increased
proximity and exposure to others.
111 That is, contact
with violence itself increases the probability that
those exposed will be directly involved in violence.
112
Identification of Program Participants
Under the HVIP model, the physical location of a
trauma center or emergency room is seen as valuable
in the fight against violence. One of the major risk
factors for future violence is a history of previous
violence. With this in mind, the HVIP model places
the responsibility for identifying clients with hospital workers who pinpoint patients that are at highest
likelihood for future victimization.

Engagement Strategy
HVIPs make use of the distinct cross-section of time—
known as a “teachable moment”— in which after an
injury an individual is open to making changes in their behavior and circumstances. During this time period,
specialized hospital staff and community-based
partners come together in support of the patient
in order to diminish the chance of retaliation and
further violence. HVIPs are especially important right
now in the fight against violence, as injury recidivism 111 https:/ /www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/fatal.html
112 https:/ /www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207245/
rates have been shown to be as high as 60 percent in
certain areas.113
Provision of Services
Once this initial bond is created, Intervention
Specialists construct a comprehensive plan with their
clients to spur on meaningful change. These plans
typically include non-violent crisis management
methods, counseling for both the client and their
family, information on risks and outcomes associated
with violence, as well as access to community services
including employment assistance, mentoring,
education, and court assistance. Consultation with
family and health providers is necessary to develop a
plan that is feasible and trauma-informed.

Office of Neighborhood Safety/
Advance Peace
In 2007, the City of Richmond, CA launched the
Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS), amid escalating
homicide rates and increasing numbers of firearm
cases. Prior to the establishment of the ONS, the
Richmond City Council analyzed violence in Richmond
and found that gun violence disproportionately
affected Black men aged 18-24, with that population
constituting 73 percent of homicide fatalities.
114 This
finding served as the basis for the creation of the
Office of Neighborhood Safety.

Identification of Program Participants
The ONS employs a data-driven approach in
identification of individuals at highest risk.

Leveraging their relationships in the community, ONS
Neighborhood Change Agents (NCA) conduct daily
sweeps of their communities, an effort that provides
a continuous flow of critical information that informs
staff response. NCAs are able to gather information
regarding those individuals that are most prone to
violence, current conflicts or family issues that may
result in violence, and other information that is used
to directly inform subsequent intervention activity.
113 https:/ /journals.lww.com/jtrauma/Abstract/2020/08000/ Recidivism_rates_following_firearm_injury_as.17.aspx
114 https:/ /www.evidentchange.org/sites/default/files/ publication_pdf/ons-process-evaluation.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 103
In addition, ONS obtains data from the Richmond
Police Department (RPD) to support identification of
those individuals at highest risk based on the data
from law enforcement.

Provision of Services
ONS’s main program is the Peacemaker Fellowship. ®
The Peacemaker Fellowship interrupts gun violence
by providing transformational opportunities to young
men involved in lethal firearm offenses and placing
them in a high-touch, personalized fellowship.

The Fellowship provides life coaching, mentoring,
connection to needed services and cultural and
educational excursions, known as Transformative
Travel, to those deemed to be the most dangerous
individuals in the city. Fellows travel across the
country and to several international destinations.

Fellows can also receive significant financial
incentives for participation and positive behavior
as a gateway to developing intrinsic motivation that
arises from internal and not external rewards.

SEVEN TOUCHPOINTS:

LifeMAP
Milestone
Allowance
LifeMAP
Goals
Elders
Circle
Daily
Check-ins
Social
Services
Intership
Travel
Street Outreach
Referred to by a variety of names and long seen
as the primary entry point for violence reduction
programs, Street Outreach can be an effective
intervention when implemented correctly. A number
of organizations and programs throughout the
country have successfully operated Street Outreach
initiatives, including Urban Peace Initiative in Los
Angeles, who also provide a Street Outreach training
academy; the Newark Community Street T eam; and
the Professional Community Intervention Training
Institute.

Identification of Program Participants
Street Outreach programs are designed to address
the manner in which violence spreads from person
to person. Studies show that those who have been
continually in contact with violence can be thirty
times more likely to commit a violent act in the

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 104
future.115 Moreover, violence often has ripple effects
in the community, whether it be in the form of
retaliation or further escalation of conflict.116
Because of this pattern in violence, Street Outreach
programs recognize potentially lethal conflicts in the
community by utilizing trained Violence Interrupters.

These Violence Interrupters identify ongoing conflicts
by speaking to key members of the community about
ongoing disputes. Information regarding arrests,
prison releases, and prior criminal history are also
utilized to pinpoint violent outbreaks.
117
Engagement and Services Strategy
Engagement is primarily facilitated by the work of
trained Violence Interrupters. Following a shooting,
these individuals immediately operate in the
community and at hospitals to pacify heightened
emotions and prevent retaliations. This involves
coordination with local groups and business owners
to hold constructive dialogue around community
violence and the appropriate actions to take in
response. Events are then organized by Violence
Interrupters to promote a change in overall
neighborhood attitudes towards violence.
115 https:/ /1vp6u534z5kr2qmr0w11t7ub-wpengine.netdna-ssl. com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Infographic-T op-10-v1.pdf 116 https:/ /www.lagryd.org/mission-comprehensive-strategy 117 https:/ /cvg.org/what-we-do/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 105

POLICE TRAINING
The following strategies have shown to be effective
in reducing crime, resolving incidents, and improving
the quality of policing without a focus on heavy-
handed enforcement.

SARA Problem Solving Model
The Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment
(SARA) model was created in Virginia in 1987 to
facilitate the problem-oriented policing procedure.
118
The cornerstone of this model is a priority on
outcomes; the model outlines four steps that
are necessary for a proper police response to
problems within their jurisdictions. To ensure proper
implementation, a significant facet of this method is
that officers must be ready to build trust between
the community and the police department through
the establishment of interpersonal relationships.
119
Scanning. This step consists of pinpointing and then
triaging repeated issues that necessitate a response
from the police department.
120 Frequent problems
that occur in the community are given priority.

Relevant outcomes of the problem are matched to
their corresponding cause. For example, examining
which properties in a given area have the highest
number of calls for service in a year or given time
period is an important initial step in the SARA model.

Analysis. Here, law enforcement officers examine
the root causes of the issue, community sentiment
regarding the problem, and gather needed contextual
data.48 This step also involves assessing the status
quo response to the problem and identifying the
shortcomings of that strategy. Ultimately, the cause
of the problem and potential solutions are determined
during this phase.

Response. Officers utilize collected data to ascertain
potential intervention strategies. When determining
118 https:/ /www.researchgate.net/publication/297556988_ Police_innovation_Contrasting_perspectives
119 https:/ /movementforward.org/a-look-inside-strategies- contributing-towards-community-policing-sara-model/
120 https:/ /www.evidence-basedpolicing.org/refresher-sara- model-and-problem-oriented-policing/
strategies, a thorough review of implemented
interventions in different areas with comparable
issues is critical. Once a strategy is selected, clear
goals must also be established. Execution of the
chosen plan is the last part of this step.

Assess. After a plan is implemented and officers
have attempted to address a problem, the police
department must analyze the efficacy of their
strategy. Continued evaluation of the intervention is
necessary to guarantee lasting success. Alternatives
or additions to the strategy are considered as well.
121
Many police departments have incorporated the
SARA model into their interventions. In San Diego,
the police department reported that a trolley station
was the location of gang fights, violent crimes,
and narcotic activity. A squad of officers collected
information to show the local transit board that the
design of the station contributed to crime. Based
on the information provided by the officers, the
transit board agreed to provide funds to redesign the
station.
122
Ethical Policing Is Courageous (EPIC)
The EPIC program is a peer-to-peer intervention
strategy that was created by the police department
in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2016. EPIC involves
training officers to be accountable to each other
and intervene before an unlawful act takes place,
irrespective of hierarchy. This initiative aims to alter the culture surrounding policing in order to limit
police misbehavior and promote a collaborative
environment.
123
The EPIC program is founded on active bystandership
psychology, which explains that active bystanders
intercede when they are made aware of problematic
behavior. EPIC training allows officers to overcome
factors that may prevent them from intervening.
121 https:/ /movementforward.org/a-look-inside-strategies- contributing-towards-community-policing-sara-model/
122 https:/ /www.sandiego.gov/department/problem-oriented- policing
123 http:/ /epic.nola.gov/home/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 106
These factors include a lack of confidence in their
skills to deescalate a situation, uneasiness about
potential retribution, and worry about breaking an
unwritten code of silence.
124
Leadership in police departments who participate in
the EPIC program must be committed to changing
their organizational culture. Police departments
implementing EPIC must provide education, training,
and on-going learning and support to officers for the
initiative to be successful. EPIC can also integrate
with other initiatives to boost officer well-being,
including counseling and trauma assistance as well as
stress reduction education.
125
Areas where EPIC programs have been implemented
have better community relations, lower rates of
misconduct, and lower rates of public grievances.

The majority of the feedback from New Orleans
police officers has also been positive.
126 Moreover,
there is strong research that peer intervention is
effective when successful strategies for interceding
are provided.
127
Project Active Bystandership for
Law Enforcement (ABLE)
Project ABLE is a joint effort between the
Georgetown Innovative Policing Program and the
Sheppard Mullin law firm to train officers to be
able to properly intervene in a crisis situation and
promote a policing atmosphere that reinforces peer
intervention. Project ABLE is based on the principles
of the New Orleans EPIC Peer Intervention Program
124 http:/ /epic.nola.gov/epic/media/Assets/EPIC-Overview.pdf 125 Id.
126 https:/ /www.apa.org/monitor/2017/10/police-misconduct 127 https:/ /epic.nola.gov/epic/media/Assets/Aronie-Lopez,- Keeping-Each-Other-Safe.pdf
and curriculum created by Dr. Ervin Staub for
California law enforcement. Through Georgetown,
law enforcement agencies are able to receive training
in Project ABLE along with a host of other resources
to assist them in advancing their own bystandership
strategies.
128,129 The training consists of a minimum
of a one-time eight hour ABLE-specific training along
with a minimum of two hours of annual refresher
training.
130 All of these resources are provided to law
enforcement agencies free of charge.

Project ABLE’s aim is to reduce police misconduct
and errors and assist in improving officer health
and well-being. In order to prevent any retaliation
from occurring to those officers who intervene,
police departments must implement stringent anti-
retaliation guidelines. Since its inception, over 70
police departments have enlisted in Project ABLE.
131
Research has shown that there are many advantages to
the implementation of significant bystander training.

This is critical because most police departments have a culture that dissuades officers from intervening when
they see problematic behaviors.
132 Identified benefits
include a decrease in violence to civilians, a decrease in violence to police officers, enhanced relationships
between community residents and the police officers,
128 https:/ /www.law.georgetown.edu/innovative-policing- program/active-bystandership-for-law-enforcement/
129 https:/ /www.law.georgetown.edu/innovative-policing- program/active-bystandership-for-law-enforcement/our-
mission/
130 https:/ /www.law.georgetown.edu/innovative-policing- program/active-bystandership-for-law-enforcement/able-
program-standards/
131 https:/ /www.wsj.com/articles/nypd-officers-to-get- training-on-speaking-up-against-bad-policing-11611838809 132 https:/ /assets.foleon.com/eu-west-2/uploads-
7e3kk3/41697/pdf_-_duty_to_intervene.6e39a04b07b6.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 107
and growth in officer well-being. 133 Evidence also
suggests a strong correlation between departments
that maintain robust duty to intervene protocols and
decreased rates of police deaths per capita.

Community Safety Partnership (Watts)
Established in November 2011, the Community
Safety Partnership (CSP) is a joint effort between
the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the
Housing Authority of the City of LA (HACLA), and
local residents.
134 The program was created in
order to address the high violence levels in housing
developments in the Watts area and offer residents
there supports and services. The broader goal of the
CSP is to implement “relationship-based policing.” This process involves police officers creating legitimate
relationships with residents of their precinct in order to meaningfully benefit community wellness for
the long-term.
135 One of the major stakeholders in
the project is the Watts Gang Task Force, a team of
neighborhood residents, local faith leaders, and other
community-based organizations.

Along with high violence rates, the community
was also grappling with concentrated poverty,
low education quality, and deteriorating physical
infrastructure. Community engagement initiatives
the CSP implemented in response include a football
team coached by police officers, Fun Runs, health
fairs, and organized walks for residents to interact
with officers in a non-confrontational setting.
136,137
In 2020, the CSP Bureau was formed within LAPD to
expand the work that was achieved in Watts citywide.

The LAPD also consolidated CSP programs creating a
centralized point of contact and engagement for the
community. The main objectives of the CSP Bureau
133 https:/ /www.law.georgetown.edu/innovative-policing- program/active-bystandership-for-law-enforcement/able-
program-standards/
134 https:/ /www.lamayor.org/mayor-garcetti-announces-new- expansion-community-safety-partnership
135 https:/ /static1.squarespace.com/
static/55b673c0e4b0cf84699bdffb/
t/5a1890acec212d9bd3b8f52d/ 1511559341778/President%2
7s+Task+Force+CSP+Policy+Brief+FINAL+02-27-15updated.pdf 136 https:/ /lasentinel.net/hundreds-of-south-la-residents- attend-launch-of-community-safety-partnership-in-harvard- park.html
137 https:/ /empowerla.org/lapds-community-relationship- division/
were to serve as a resource for officer--community
interaction and promotion of neighborhood safety.138
The CSP Bureau is also responsible for certifying
and training officers for 5-year terms. CSP officers
undergo over 100 hours of education from the
nonprofit Urban Peace Institute. The training centers
on cultural competency, de-escalation skills, and
understanding community data.
139
Originally formed for one housing site, CSP has
spread to ten additional developments. In 2017, the
program was broadened to the Harvard Park area
due to its efficacy. During the initial three years after the CSP’s formation, both violent offenses and arrest
rates decreased by over 50 percent in the Watts
housing developments. One Watts location even
had three consecutive years without a homicide.

Residents of these Watts developments have even
reported increased perceptions of safety along with
greater trust in the police.
140 An evaluation of CSP
by UCLA found that this effort reduced crime, arrest
rates, and use of force grievances from residents.
141
Focused Deterrence
Focused Deterrence strategies involve the
communication of risks, ramifications, and avenues
of support to individuals involved in gun violence.

This strategy is based on the fact that a very small
number of people are responsible for a large portion
of gun violence.

One of the most prominent implementations of
focused deterrence is Boston, Massachusetts’s
Operation Ceasefire. Experiencing an increase in
violence, Boston police identified and communicated
with individuals and groups that were pinpointed
as most at risk of engaging in violence.
142 Boston
police also partnered with the Boston Ten Point
Coalition, a group of faith and community leaders,
138 https:/ /www.lamayor.org/mayor-garcetti-announces-
creation-lapd-community-safety-partnership-bureau
139
https:/ /static1.squarespace.com/
static/55b673c0e4b0cf84699bdffb/
t/5a1890acec212d9bd3b8f52d/ 1511559341778/President%2
7s+Task+Force+CSP+Policy+Brief+FINAL+02-27-15updated.pdf 140 Id.
141 https:/ /www.lamayor.org/mayor-garcetti-announces-
creation-lapd-community-safety-partnership-bureau
142 https:/ /cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in- policing/research-evidence-review/focused-deterrence/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 108
in order to provide support and services to these
targeted individuals and groups. Oakland has also
implemented a version of Focused Deterrence that
is profiled in the Gun Violence Reduction section of
this report.

Focused Deterrence strategies are often tailored to
the location in which they are being implemented.

Project Safe Neighborhoods in Lowell, Massachusetts,
instituted this strategy in areas of high crime.

Lowell dealt with a significant Asian gang presence
largely comprising youth involved in illicit gambling
operations. In order to address the youth violence,
the City of Lowell worked with older Asian males in
charge of the gambling. The older Asians intervened
in youth violence in order to prevent their gambling
enterprise from being destroyed. Lowell experienced
a major decline in adolescent violence following
the implementation of this Focused Deterrence
strategy.
143
After Ceasefire was implemented in Boston,
evaluations found a 63 percent drop in youth
homicides and a 32 percent decline in calls for
service related to gun violence.
144 A meta-analysis of
several Focused Deterrence strategies found steady
reductions in violent crime of up to 60 percent,
particularly for group and gang related violence.
145
Elimination of Pretextual Stops
Pretextual or pretext traffic stops occur when police
officers stop a driver for a minor violation, like vehicle equipment failure, and then try to leverage that
opportunity to find evidence of a more significant
crime. A recent evaluation of 100 million traffic
encounters demonstrated that Black and Latino
drivers experience higher rates of pretextual stops
and searches.
146 However, most of these stops do not
actually yield any contraband or weapons.147 Because
the nature of pretextual stops relies heavily on officer discretion, there is high likelihood that implicit racial biases come into play. Such stops that end in violence
143 https:/ /cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in- policing/research-evidence-review/focused-deterrence/
144 https:/ /www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/188741.pdf
145 https:/ /prohic.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-03- 31-FocussedDeterrenceBraga.September2019.pdf
146 https:/ /www.vera.org/blog/ending-pretextual-stops-is-an- important-step-toward-racial-justice
147 https:/ /www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/7898-rudovskyoslj or death disproportionately affect Black and Latino
drivers.148
Elimination of pretextual stops does not negatively
affect crime. An analysis by the police department
in Fayetteville, North Carolina showed that violent
crime was not affected after the police department
reformed its use of pretextual stops.
149
Pretextual stops are in the process of being regulated
in many states across the country. Oregon’s
Supreme Court ruled in November 2019 that it was
unconstitutional for police to stop a driver and proceed to ask unrelated questions, thereby effectively
banning pretextual stops.
150 Virginia policy makers are
also considering restricting pretextual stops.151 Other legislation has been introduced across the country
that prevents police officers from conducting certain
types of pretextual stops including, for example,
broken tail or brake lights, objects obstructing the
rearview mirror, and tinted windows.
152 Advocates
of these bills state the proposed limitations would
decrease racial incongruities in traffic stops.
153
The Berkeley City Council has already approved
the formation of BerkDOT in order to address and
decrease the frequency of pretextual traffic stops.
154
The City Council also approved the Mayor’s Fair and
Impartial Policing Workgroup’s recommendations,
which includes elimination of pretextual stops.

Ethical Society of Police (ESOP)
Instituted in 1972 by Black St. Louis Metropolitan
Police Department officers, the Ethical Society of
Police (ESOP) is a police union that was created
in order to combat systemic racism within the
148 https:/ /www.berkeleyside.com/2021/03/02/opinion-for- berkeley-to-reimagine-public-safety-we-must-grapple-with- traffic-enforcement
149 https:/ /injepijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/ s40621-019-0227-6
150 https:/ /www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-supreme-court- bans-police-officers-random-questions/
151 https:/ /www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/ blogs/stateline/2020/09/03/police-pretext-traffic-stops-need- to-end-some-lawmakers-say
152 https:/ /theappeal.org/traffic-enforcement-without-police/ 153 https:/ /www.dailypress.com/news/crime/dp-nw-northam- legislation-traffic-20201021-3f2tmucyl5csdmbhhv2zh3atya- story.html
154 https:/ /www.berkeleyside.com/2021/03/02/opinion-for- berkeley-to-reimagine-public-safety-we-must-grapple-with- traffic-enforcement

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 109
department and greater community. The group is
comprised of 220 members, who are either police
officers or civilian contractors.
155 The organization
recently scaled up to include the St. Louis County
Police Department. ESOP has been particularly
outspoken in cases of police wrongdoing. The group
places a higher premium on ethical decision making,
even though openly criticizing actions of their fellow
police officers can be difficult.

Most recently, ESOP condemned the actions of a
police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota that
resulted in the death of Daunte Wright, expressing
that the officer was irresponsible in upholding her
duties.
156 ESOP has also sponsored many events in
order to improve relationships between police officers
and their community including Pizza with a Cop,
community clean-up days, and basketball games. In
August of 2020, ESOP also released a groundbreaking
report that details systemic racism throughout the St.

Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Chicago PD Black Public
Safety Alliance (BPSA)
A group of Black Chicago Police Department (CPD)
officers created the Black Public Safety Alliance
(BPSA) in 2021.
157 The organization serves to give
Black police officers a voice amidst the deep-rooted
issues between communities of color and the CPD.

The BPSA was created in response to concerns
with the broader Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).
158
Officers in the BPSA have explained they “...do not
feel supported or comfortable at the FOP,” especially
after the local police union refused to undergo
mandated precinct reform to promote trust in the
community.
159
155 https:/ /img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/64ce42b7-f768-
43ed-9590-dbd611afb7b6/downloads/1c6lj3b8j_482336.
pdf?ver=1618276018416
156 https:/ /www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/
opinion/police-officer-unions.
html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
157 https:/ /www.wbez.org/stories/black-chicago-police- officers-form-new-group/abb12a96-1103-4ced-a068-
0ffbfb158da9
158 https:/ /movementforward.org/a-look-inside-strategies- contributing-towards-community-policing-sara-model/
159 https:/ /www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-
justice/ct-black-chicago-police-organization-20210225-
dvbzcs4z3feqvix4sumhcbbgru-story.html
The formation of the alliance is a reflection of the
national conversation that was ignited by George
Floyd’s death. The members of BPSA have expressed
that advocating for the Black community is one of
their main goals, even if that involves challenging the status quo. Currently operating as a nonprofit, the
BPSA has established working groups on diversity
policies, adolescent coaching, and police reform.
160
Police Diversity
With the recent demands for law enforcement to
address racial injustice and the disparate impact of
policing on communities of color, diversity in the
ranks of officers has emerged as a potential area
of reform. In a New York Times analysis of federal
Bureau of Justice Statistics data on nearly 500 police
departments across the country, more than 66
percent of the departments experienced a reduction
in diversity and became more white from 2007 to
2016. Although the share of police officers of color has risen in that time period as well, the demographics of
police departments do not reflect the demographics
of communities they serve.
161 Black officers are twice
as likely than their white counterparts to espouse the
belief that the deaths of people of color at the hands
of police officers are a legitimate problem.
162
Diversity in law enforcement is correlated with
stronger bonds between a department and the
community they serve, particularly communities of
color. Use of force grievances have also been shown
to decrease when there are more non-white officers
in leadership positions.
163 A new comprehensive
study of police diversity in Chicago, Illinois was
conducted by a group of academics from Princeton
University, Columbia University, the Wharton School
of Business, and the University of California at Irvine.

Their research concluded that, “Relative to white
officers, Black and Hispanic officers make far fewer
stops and arrests, and they use force less often,
especially against Black civilians. These effects are
160 Id.
161 https:/ /www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/23/us/ bureau-justice-statistics-race.html
162 https:/ /www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/12/
black-and-white-officers-see-many-key-aspects-of-policing- differently/
163 https:/ /www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/23/us/ bureau-justice-statistics-race.html

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 110
largest in majority-Black areas of Chicago and stem
from reduced focus on enforcing low-level offenses,
with greatest impact on Black civilians. Female
officers also use less force than males, a result that
holds within all racial groups.”
164
Warrior vs. Guardian Mentality
The mentality of a warrior going to battle and the
police force being an occupying army has been
referred to as the “warrior mentality” for many
years. Instilled, or reinforced, in police officers
at the academy, the warrior concept is saturated
throughout police culture. The guardian mentality is
a newer idea that promotes community engagement,
the establishment of meaningful relationships, and
providing support to residents.
165
“From Warriors to Guardians: Recommitting
American Police Culture to Democratic Ideals,” a
report by the Harvard University Kennedy School of
Government and the National Institute of Justice,
directly addresses the problems of the warrior culture
in policing. The report states: “In some communities,
the friendly neighborhood beat cop — community
guardian — has been replaced with the urban
warrior, trained for battle and equipped with the
accouterments and weaponry of modern warfare.”
166
The report goes on to highlight problems with
police academies and the aggressive, warrior type
manner in which new recruits are trained: “Another,
more insidious problem in a military-style academy
is the behavior modeled by academy staff. Those
without power (recruits) submit without question
to the authority of those who have power (academy
staff). Rule violations are addressed by verbal abuse
or physical punishment in the form of pushups and
extra laps.”
167
A novel initiative has been implemented at
the Washington State Criminal Justice Training
Commission (WSCJTC) to try to instill the guardian
culture in police departments in the state. The WSCJTC 164 https:/ /scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/bkmr.pdf 165 https:/ /www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2019/02/190226155011.htm
166 https:/ /www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248654.pdf
167 https:/ /www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248654.pdf
conducts and implements training of over 10,000
police officers annually. Curricular and approach
changes include the removal of salute requirements
for recruits, motivating instead of criticizing recruits during training, and the incorporation of behavioral
education into the curriculum. Early longitudinal
evaluations of the WSCJTC program show that the
officers that participated in the training felt more
comfortable responding to behavioral and mental
health crises when compared with officers that
did not receive the training.
168 Gains in emotional
intelligence and peer support were observed as well.

Accountability
Current police accountability mechanisms are largely
perceived to be ineffective. While the challenges
in this area are myriad, there are two particularly
critical areas of focus in the police accountability
conversation, the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of
Rights and Qualified Immunity.

Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights
Sixteen states currently employ some sort of police
officer bill of rights, including California. These bills provide workplace safeguards for police officers,
including but not limited to erasing misconduct
complaints after a time period, a bar against
civilian investigation, and a waiting period before
any investigation can begin.
169 They have been
consistently cited as a central barrier to police
accountability in jurisdictions across the country.

Maryland, the state which enacted the first police
officer bill of rights and had what many consider
the most draconian, recently repealed its Law
Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights in April 2021 in
order to increase police accountability drastically.
170
Maryland’s replacement legislation involves a
stringent use-of-force measure, incorporation of
168 https:/ /www.seattleu.edu/media/college-of-
arts-and-sciences/departments/criminaljustice/
crimeandjusticeresearchcenter/documents/Helfgott-and-
Hickman-2021_Longitudinal-Study-of-the-Effect-of-Guardian- Training-for-LE.pdf
169 http:/ /www.cato.org/blog/police-misconduct-law-
enforcement-officers-bill-rights
170 https:/ /www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/08/29/ police-bill-of-rights-officers-discipline-maryland/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 111
civilian panels for discipline, and an emphasis on de-
escalation tactics.171
Qualified Immunity
Qualified immunity, established by the Supreme
Court in 1967, effectively protects state and local
officials, including police officers, from personal
liability unless they are determined to have violated
what the court defines as an individual’s “clearly
established statutory or constitutional rights.” The
doctrine can be used only in civil cases, not criminal, and allows victims to sue officials for damages only
under those circumstances.

Critics and reform advocates say that the doctrine
gives officers free rein to use excessive force with
impunity and argue that what it defines as “clearly
established” law remains largely elusive and difficult
to prove, as it requires the victim to present a previous case with nearly identical circumstances that a court
ruled as unconstitutional. They also assert the law
helps officers escape accountability and prevents
victims from achieving justice.

Elimination of qualified immunity is thus another
component of increasing police accountability.

Colorado and New Mexico
172 have recently passed
legislation modifying their respective qualified
immunity provisions; similar legislation in California
is pending.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 calls
for the national elimination of qualified immunity.
173
Additional Accountability
Measures of Note
A routine check of officers’ social media can also
be a powerful tool to address potentially racist or
other problematic posts. After a 2019 analysis of
approximately 4 million stops by police in California,
the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board has
recommended that police departments perform
171 Id.
172 https:/ /custom.statenet.com/public/resources.
cgi?id=ID:bill:NM2021000H4&ciq=ncsl&client_
md=562236734bdbcb53a3148c2e8d11ebbd&mode=current_
text
173 https:/ /www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house- bill/7120/text
checks on assigned department software as well as
social media accounts in order to identify and hold
accountable officers who are actively biased and
reflect that bias on the job.
174
Early intervention systems (EIS) are an additional
mechanism by which police accountability can be
fostered. These systems analyze a variety of indicators for potentially problematic behavior including use of
force incidents, citizen grievances, and disciplinary
history. Identification of habitual misconduct by
officers is often accomplished through a ‘peer
officer comparison system,’ where officers assigned
to the same beat are juxtaposed.
175 Once an officer
is identified by the EIS for habitual misconduct,
supports, and services to aid the officer are provided
in order to encourage officer well-being and aid in
behavioral change. Continued monitoring of officer
progress as well as frequent reviews of EIS data are
necessary for successful implementation.
176
174 https:/ /www.policemag.com/589521/advisory-board-
recommends-ca-agencies-check-officers-social-media-activity- for-r
175 https:/ /samuelwalker.net/issues/early-intervention- systems/
176 https:/ /www.policefoundation.org/publication/best- practices-in-early-intervention-system-implementation-and- use-in-law-enforcement-agencies/

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POLICE TRAINING
Increased training and education programs are
frequently promoted to police departments to help
improve the quality of policing and support officers
in gaining new skills. As noted by two Columbia Law
School professors in an article on police reform, “...
training does not take root unless officers are held
accountable for obeying the rules and practicing
the skills they are taught.”
177 Training alone is not
adequate to transform a police department or change
the behavior of an officer. But combined with culture
change, new policies and accountability, training can
be an effective tool to improve and reform the police.

Procedural Justice
Procedural Justice in policing improves police-
community relations and emphasizes police
departments and officers being transparent in their
actions, fair in their processes, allowing community
voice, and using impartiality in decision making.

According to the Department of Justice’s Community
Oriented Policing Services, “Procedural justice refers
to the idea of fairness in the processes that resolve
177 https:/ /www.themarshallproject.org/2014/12/19/the- new-new-policing

PROCEDURAL

JUSTICE
Fairness
Being fair in
processes
Transparency
Being
transparent
Voice
Providing
opportunity
for voice
decision maker
disputes and allocate resources. It is a concept that,
when embraced, promotes positive organizational
change and bolsters better relationships.”
178
A comprehensive evaluation of procedural justice
training found that “training increased officer support for all of the procedural justice dimensions. . . Post- training, officers were more likely to endorse the
importance of giving citizens a voice, granting them
dignity and respect, demonstrating neutrality, and
(with the least enthusiasm) trusting them to do the
right thing.”
179
Several evaluations of procedural justice have
found the education has been correlated with an
improvement in relations between a community
and a police department.
180 In Oakland, the police
department trained all officers in procedural justice
and provided specialized procedural justice training
to the department’s gun violence reduction unit.

Oakland’s police department was also the first
department in the country to have members of the
178 https:/ /cops.usdoj.gov/prodceduraljustice
179 https:/ /www.researchgate.net/publication/269723704_ Training_police_for_procedural_justice
180 https:/ /www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Police/ Level_3_-_General/Principled%20Policing_outline.pdf

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 113
community teach a portion of the procedural justice
training.

To aid in procedural justice incorporation into police
departments, the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law
School has created a compilation of procedural
justice training guides, departments who have
implemented procedural justice training, and other
pertinent resources.
181
While also suggesting procedural justice training as
a way to combat the “warrior mentality” in police
departments, a Harvard University Kennedy School
of Government report advises that “Police leaders
dedicated to establishing practices in their agencies
based on procedural justice principles must ensure
that their organizational culture is not in conflict with these same principles.”
182
Implicit Bias
Implicit bias, as the name denotes, is an unconscious
belief, attitude or bias against another race, ethnicity, or group. When Stanford University psychologist
Jennifer Eberhardt conducted a large-scale study
of policing, she discovered that the unconscious
link between Black individuals and criminality is so
high that even contemplating lawlessness can cause
someone to fixate on Black people.
183 These societal
biases end up affecting the judgment of police
officers whether they are aware of it or not.

In Oakland, Professor Eberhardt and her team
reviewed body camera footage from 1,000 traffic
stops to elucidate the difference in officer language
in encounters with Black versus white drivers. The
research found that Oakland Police Department
(OPD) officers consistently communicated with Black
drivers in a less civil manner when compared with
white drivers they addressed.
184 Various programs
to address implicit bias were then recommended
for implementation in OPD in response to these
findings. Short, repeated education sessions were
found to be associated with higher levels of officer
181 https:/ /law.yale.edu/justice-collaboratory/procedural- justice/guides-practitioners
182 https:/ /www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248654.pdf
183 https:/ /psychology.stanford.edu/news/we-understand- implicit-bias-now-what-conversation-stanford-psychologist- jennifer-eberhardt
184 Id.
comprehension and knowledge. 185 The training was
accompanied by more community engagement and
data transparency in order to allow officers to start
the process of unlearning implicit biases.

A novel approach to implicit bias training is the
Counter Bias Training Simulation (CBTSim). This
strategy utilizes shooting automation and video
sequences to demonstrate the risks of implicit bias
in a realistic setting.
186 In the curriculum, officers are
forced to deal with potentially explosive situations
without reacting in a way that reflects preconceived
notions.
187
De-escalation
With an increase in the number of deadly interactions
between police and unarmed civilians going viral, there has been an on-going call for officers to be required
to utilize effective verbal de-escalation strategies.

Law enforcement officers in the United States
kill nearly 1,000 civilians annually, many of whom
are unarmed.
188 However, many law enforcement
agencies provide little to no de-escalation training
to officers, and 34 states have no mandate for de-
escalation training.

Successful de-escalation programs operate to assist
law enforcement personnel in relaxing the situation in
order to gain valuable time in a crisis. Ideal guidance for officers suggests that 40 hours of de-escalation
instruction is needed. The Police Executive Research
Forum (PERF) de-escalation training is a program
that has seen substantial reductions in use of force
complaints and civilian injury. The training includes
active listening, forming physical space between
the individual and officer, and education regarding
mental illness and well-being.
189
When the Dallas Police Department implemented a
training curriculum involving de-escalation tactics,
185 https:/ /news.stanford.edu/2016/06/15/stanford-big-data- study-finds-racial-disparities-oakland-calif-police-behavior- offers-solutions/
186 https:/ /www.npr.org/2020/09/10/909380525/nypd-
study-implicit-bias-training-changes-minds-not-necessarily- behavior
187 https:/ /www.faac.com/milo/cognitive/cbtsim/
188 https:/ /www.washingtonpost.com/local/deescalation- training-police/2020/10/27/3a345830-14a8-11eb-ad6f-
36c93e6e94fb_story.html
189 Id.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 114
use of force grievances declined by 18 percent
the following year. After the San Francisco Police
Department incorporated de-escalation training into
their curriculum, use of force incidents dropped by
24 percent annually.
190
Community Engagement
A tense relationship between police and the
community, especially communities of color, has
been a long, intractable problem. Mistrust of law
enforcement is not just theoretically problematic; it
has also been proven to be linked to an increase in
crime and violence.
191 Police officers should work to
develop meaningful and positive relationships with
members of the community by taking measures
including regularly and actively attending community
meetings, special events, neighborhood gatherings,
positively communicating with area youth, and
participating or hosting local sporting events. By
doing saw law enforcement conveys the message that
residents have a voice and that their input matters.

Police should also connect with individuals in the
community who advocate for greater social cohesion,
such as faith leaders, in order to successfully engage
a broad swath of the community.
192
Crime Prevention Through Community Engagement
(CPTCE), an extensive training guide for improving
relations between police departments and the
community, was recently developed by The American
Crime Prevention Institute (ACPI). The training
consists of strategies to engage communities of
color, employ social media to interact with residents,
coordinate with faith-based leaders, and partner with
community-based organizations.
193
In New Haven, Connecticut, the police department
implemented 40-hours of community engagement
education for its recruits, including education about
the area’s history as well as continuous outreach
activities. Officers overwhelmingly supported the
initiative and reported having positive interactions.
190 https:/ /www.washingtonpost.com/local/deescalation- training-police/2020/10/27/3a345830-14a8-11eb-ad6f-
36c93e6e94fb_story.html
191 https:/ /giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/
Giffords-Law-Center-In-Pursuit-of-Peace.pdf
192 https:/ /courses.acpionline.com/community-engagement/ 193 http:/ /acpionline.com/seminars/cptcelou/
After the pilot, the police department expanded the
program to partner with the local community-based
organization, Leadership, Education, & Athletics
in Partnership (LEAP).
194 Community engagement
training for law enforcement in general is correlated
with increased trust and stronger social ties in
neighborhoods.

Open Policing is a research-based strategy that
incorporates elements of procedural justice to
improve police-community relations. Residents of
communities are able to offer their comments and
observations regarding their exchanges with police
officers anonymously. All comments are collated into
Agency Pages, which can be explored by residents
and officers.
195 In addition to the Open Policing policy,
some departments have initiated CFS reviews. After
any call for service, community members are able to
give details about their interaction in a three-minute
review without any fear of consequence.
196
The four main components of procedural justice
have been assimilated into Open Policing, including
promotion of vocalization from the community,
serving individuals with respect, objectivity in
decision-making, and credibility with the community.

The main goals of the strategy are to improve officer-
civilian relations and responses to incidents as well
as promoting accountability within the department.

All comments are collated into Agency Pages, which
can be explored by residents and officers.
197 Open
Policing has been correlated with a 35 percent
decrease in resident grievances and increased trust
in police departments.
198
Data Driven Risk Management
The Oakland Police Department (OPD) recently
implemented a series of 15 Microsoft Power BI
(Business Intelligence) dashboards that allow for
a precise review of police behavior. Working with
Slalom, a data consulting firm, OPD has increased
transparency and accountability through data
194 https:/ /www.policefoundation.org/wp-content/
uploads/2017/08/IAP_Outside-the-Academy-Learning-
Community-Policing-through-Community-Engagement.pdf
195 https:/ /www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/pl_police_ commun%20engage_121714_c.pdf
196 https:/ /www.openpolicing.org/how-open-policing-works/ 197 Id.
198 https:/ /www.openpolicing.org/try-open-policing/

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 115
analysis. Patterns of enforcement, historical activity, and performance over time are all monitored in close
to real-time.
199
The dashboards were created with input from OPD
staff and leadership, community-based organizations,
other law enforcement agencies, and Stanford
University’s SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers
to Real-world Questions). Each dashboard can be
accessed by OPD leadership, depending on security
clearance. The dashboards have a simple interface,
allowing supervisors to access and understand the
data easily. Police supervisors can access a variety
of data, from long-term information to arrests made
within the last 24 hours.
200 Dashboards allow for an
easy breakdown of incidents by factors including
race, gender, ethnicity, and officer. This permits police departments to monitor problematic patterns and
address them quickly.
201 Early Intervention Systems
(EIS) such as these dashboards have been correlated
with increased personnel safety, improved officer
welfare, and an increase in police accountability.
202
One necessary improvement to these systems and
their deployment is to universally allow the public to
have access to the information they capture.
199 https:/ /www.slalom.com/case-studies/city-oakland-
creating-police-transparency-and-trust-data
200 https:/ /medium.com/slalom-data-analytics/data-is-the- new-sheriff-in-town-but-is-it-biased-4aa140904dd7
201 https:/ /cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Police- Commission-7.23.20-Agenda-Packet.pdf
202 https:/ /www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ PIJPSM-02-2020-0027/full/html

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APPENDIX I
Alternative
Responses Report
116

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INTRODUCTION AND

REPORT OVERVIEW
In the effort to provide meaningful information and recommendations to the Berkeley Reimagining Public Safety process, the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) was tasked by the City Manager’s Office to conduct research and analysis to produce a series of reports for the Taskforce, City of Berkeley (City) leadership, and the public. NICJR reviewed the City Auditor’s Calls for Services assessment, conducted further analysis of Berkeley Police Department Calls for Service (CFS), used the previously submitted New and Emerging Models of Public Safety report, and drew upon our team’s experience and expertise, to develop this Alternatives Responses report.

This report provides an actionable roadmap for providing community and other non-law enforcement alternatives to a police response for 50 percent of CFS types to which the Berkeley Police Department (BPD) currently responds.

The initial section of this report presents the NICJR analysis of BPD’s CFS and compares that analysis to the Berkeley City Auditor’s report. The next section provides an overview of NICJR’s alternative response model – Tiered Dispatch, which includes the Community Emergency Response Network (CERN) – and describes how specific call types are assigned to CERN tiers.

The report concludes with an overview of a framework for the City’s alternative response model, drawing upon both existing and planned City resources. The specific parameters and scope of the Specialized Care Unit (SCU) have not yet been defined. The present analysis assumes that the SCU’s role will be focused on mental- health and substance abuse related call responses.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 118

CALLS FOR SERVICE ANALYSIS
Summary of City Auditor Findings, NICJR Category Assignment and Crosswalk The Berkeley City Auditor (Auditor) recently conducted an analysis of over 350,000 BPD calls for service covering calendar years 2015-2019. The BPD CFS audit, which can be found here, focused on the following questions:

1. Wha
t are the characteristics of calls for service to which Berkeley Police respond?

2. Wha
t are the characteristics of officer-initiated stops by Berkeley Police?

3. Ho
w much time do officers spend responding to calls for service?

4. Ho
w many calls for service are related to mental health and homelessness?

5. Can the
City improve the transparency of Police Department calls through the City of Berkeley’s Open Data Portal?
The Auditor categorized over 130+ call types into 9 categories in an effort to answer these questions: Violent Crime (FBI Part 1), Property Crime (FBI Part I), FBI Part II Crimes, Investigative or Operational, Medical or Mental Health, Information or Administrative, Community, Traffic, and Alarm.

Figure 1. BPD Calls by Auditor Call Categories
Between 2015 and 2019 the Auditor found that BPD responded to an average of 70,160 CFS annually, and that ten call types accounted for 54 percent of all CFS.

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 119
Table 1. T op T en Call Types, Auditor Report
Call Types T otal Count
Traffic Stop 44,795
Disturbance 35,696
Audible Alarm 19,920
Noise Disturbance 15,773
Security Check 15,262
Welfare Check 15,030
Suspicious Circumstance 11,547
Trespassing 11,058
Theft 10,556
Wireless 911 9,899
The top ten call types fell into four categories: Traffic, Community, Alarm, and Property Crime. Mental health related CFS accounted for approximately 12 percent of all call types, while homelessness CFS accounted for 6.2 percent of all events. These types of CFS were identified by looking at keywords in narrative reports, disposition codes, call types, and/or Mobile Crisis Team response.

During the period reviewed, BPD officers spent most of their time (69 percent) responding to CFS that were categorized as Traffic (18 percent), Community (30 percent), or FBI Part II crimes (21 percent). Seven percent of BPD officers’ time was spent handling Medical Mental Health CFS, another 9 percent on Property Crime CFS, and 2 percent on Alarms. The remainder of BPD officer time (14 percent) was spent on Information or Administrative, Investigative or Operational, and Violent Crime CFS.

Figure 2. BPD Officer Time Allocation, Auditor Report
T op 10 call
types account
for 54% of
all events

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Remaining Public Safety in Berkeley: Final Report and Implementation Plan 120

NICJR EXPANDS UPON
AUDITOR’S ANALYSIS
As a first step in developing this Alternative Response Report, NICJR reviewed the CFS analysis completed by the Auditor and compared the results of that analysis to its own CFS classification results.

As outlined above, the Berkeley City Auditor aggregated all BPD call types into 9 categories, while NICJR uses 4 Categories to organize the same events. A crosswalk between the Auditor’s 9 and NICJR’s 4 CFS Categories is outlined in Table 2. NICJR categories are aligned with state specific penal codes and their associated penalties.

If a call type is not found in the penal code, it is placed into the Non-Criminal Category.

Table 2. Crosswalk, Berkeley City Auditor and NICJR Call Type Categories Berkeley Auditor Categories NICJR Categories
Violent Crimes (FBI Part I) Serious Violent Felony: Any event identified in the California Penal Code as a Serious Violent Felony
Property Crimes (FBI Part I) Non-Violent Felony: Any event identified in the California Penal Code as a Non-Violent Felony
FBI Part II Crimes Misdemeanor: Any event identified in the California Penal Code as a Misdemeanor
Community
Non-Criminal: Any event not identified in the
Penal Code
Medical or Mental Health
Traffic
Informational or Administrative
Investigative or Operational
Alarm Calls
NICJR uses this method of categorizing events because it affords the most linear association between the event and its associated criminal penalty. By categorizing events in this manner, NICJR can clearly identify the portion of CFS that are either non-criminal or are for low-level and non-violent offenses. Categorizing call data into a simple criminal vs. non-criminal, violent, vs. non-violent, structure also supports conversations with the community about alternatives to policing for specific call types grounded in easily understandable data.

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Berkeley City CouncilMay 5, 2022

Berkeley City Council
May 5, 2022