BY DANIEL MCGLYNN //

2008 saw the usual spree of assaults, drugs, paper crimes, and shoplifting that are normal in El Cerrito. “The majority of crime in the city is property related theft,” said El Cerrito Police Commander Michael Regan, “usually burglarizing homes and autos.”

Statistically, according to the serious crimes reported by the El Cerrito police department to the State of California, there was roughly the same amount of crime in 2008 as in 2007. The reported offenses average a little over a hundred a month. One crime noticeably absent from the 2008 numbers was homicide. “There were no homicides last year, and that makes me happy,” said Regan. There were two homicides in El Cerrito in 2007.

One new policing approach that department implemented in 2008 was the community action response team. The team is designed to “address crime trends as they occur,” said Regan. If there is a rash of burglaries in one area of the city, the team will move resources to deal with it. The officers also investigate quality of life crimes, like kids loitering after school, or people drinking in the Target parking lot. In 2008, the team produced some “high quality arrests,” said Regan, “but we’re still feeling it out.”

Another crime prevention program run by the department is the school resource officer program. “The number of crimes reported at the school is dropping, every year the program continues to be more successful,” said Regan.

Other big news for the El Cerrito police in 2008 is that the department now has 42 officers; the result of a five-year effort to achieve high staff levels. Having 42 officers, “allows us to be more proactive,” said Regan.

Two parts of the department that benefit from high staffing levels, are the bicycle patrol and the traffic safety unit. Regan said the view of the department is that “if you take care of the little things, the big things take care of themselves.”

Sergeant Maples, the coordinator of the department’s bicycle patrol, said that in 2008 “1427 officer hours were logged from a bike, with 507 tickets issued and 45 arrests made by bicycle patrol officers.” One big benefit of having cops on bikes is that they are more accessible to the public. Sergeant Maples said that before he could sit at a corner in a car all day and not interact with the public, but on a bike people approach him regularly. Officers on bikes patrol the BART paths, pull cars over, and make pedestrian stops.

The bicycle patrol has been around for a while, but in 2008, Maples said the department started its own in house training. “By the end of 2009 every member of the department will be trained to work bike patrol,” said Maples.

The traffic safety unit was also busy in 2008. To answer a citizen request for pedestrian safety, the traffic unit issued 819 pedestrian-traffic related citations and 179 citations for cars failing to yield to pedestrians, said Sergeant Steve Bonini, head of the unit. There were also directed efforts at “speed as a primary collision factor in 2008,” he said.

The department also started a commercial traffic enforcement unit that weighs and inspects the big rigs that rumble down San Pablo. For 2009, Bonini said a new traffic unit goal is enforce laws against unlicensed drivers.

As previously reported by the El Cerrito Focus, one new community awareness tool implemented by the department in 2008 is the adoption of crimereports.com. This system replaces the posting of weekly crime reports by the department and also maps the crimes in the city, so that residents get a sense of where crimes are happening.

The El Cerrito Focus also plotted all reported felonies for 2008 in department’s press releases in a visual representation so residents can see the types and frequencies of crime in the city.

BY DANIEL MCGLYNN //

If you took 24 crimes that happened in El Cerrito in the past two weeks – broke them into categories like theft, burglary, sexual offense, etc., then color coded those crimes and stuck them on a map – you would start to see some patterns in the recent criminal activity.

Gone are the old school police logs, published weekly in the local paper, instead law enforcement agencies are putting crime information on the web. Using applications like Google maps and real-time data entry, police departments can use the Internet as a crime prevention and awareness tool.

El Cerrito, in the past month, has launched a new crime map link on the city website. The map, from CrimeReports.com, enables the El Cerrito Police Department to share crime data in “near real time,” according to the website.

Chief of Police Scott Kirkland said, “an informed community is a better community,” when talking about the value of the new crime maps system. The ability for El Cerrito residents to see what kinds of crimes are happening in their neighborhoods, around schools, and near local businesses, is part of the chief’s goal to “get the message out to the public.”

The new crime reporting system updates daily so “community members can access their neighborhood crime info for free, empowering them to make well informed decisions to help improve the safety of their family, friends, property, and community at large,“ the website says.

In early efforts to help people understand what’s going on in their neighborhood, the El Cerrito Police Department has been posting press releases about criminal activity on the city’s website since 2000. Later the format was slightly altered to a weekly posting of crimes, which the chief said, was “well received.”

Besides offering current crime data, CrimeReports.com also has features that allow citizens to interact with the information. The crimes, reported at the block level to protect victim’s privacy, are sorted by type. For example, the crimes reported last week in El Cerrito were a vehicle theft – with a green V symbol, breaking and entering – with a dark blue B symbol, theft – with a light blue T symbol, and sexual offense – with a red S symbol. All of these symbols are aggregated and placed on a Google map.

Chief Kirkland said that the website is a practical way for the public to stay informed and for small police departments, which are often overlooked by large media outlets, to interact with the public. That, and the service is cost effective, incurring a monthly expense of about $100. Other local cities that have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for similar services that don’t work as well, said the chief.

BY SWETA VOHRA //

In the past two years, statistics show that El Cerrito has put a significant dent in crime rates. The most significant reduction has been in larceny-theft crimes, which can include stealing personal property from unlocked cars or houses. Chief Scott Kirkland says this decrease in crime rates is due to “a myriad of factors.”

According to statistics compiled by the El Cerrito Police Department, from the year 2006 to 2007, the number of crimes reported in the city fell from 1,807 to 1,466, with the largest drop in theft offenses. The year-to-date crime reports in 2008 stands at 929.

One of the main factors for an overall decrease in crime, according to Kirkland, is the Police Department’s Bicycle Patrol Program, which deploys officers on bikes instead of patrol cars. “Last July, we really invigorated our Bike Patrol Unit,” says Kirkland, in an effort to combat crimes more effectively in the city.

The Bike Unit allows officers to monitor places that police cars may not have easy access to such as the parks, the Ohlone Greenway and El Cerrito Plaza. According to Kirkland, many residents believe the BART pathway is a dramatically less safe area compared to other parts of town, when in reality the crime statistics show it does not have a higher incident rate.

Therefore, this “perception of safety,” is the hardest thing to handle sometimes, says Kirkland. When officers on bikes ride up and down this area, it eases people’s fears as well as fights crime.

Another factor that has cut crime rates is the School Resource Officer Program. Two School Resource Officers are stationed at El Cerrito High School and according to Kirkland, “have established good relationships with students and more importantly, made clear what is acceptable behavior and what is unacceptable behavior.”

Kirkland says he hears daily from the resource officers, which helps him stay informed about the youth in the community. He stresses that listening to his officers and the residents is “paramount.” Kirkland adds, “How responsive can you be without listening to the community?”

One of the ways that Kirkland keeps in touch with his community is through the El Cerrito Crime Prevention Committee. Aside from appointing a police liaison, Kirkland also tries to attend meetings when he can.

Suzanne Iarla, the community outreach specialist for the committee, says the prevention committee “focuses on crime prevention and safety topics.”

According to Iarla, the committee consists of volunteer residents who meet the second Wednesday of each month. National Night Out as well as working closely with the police and fire departments are some of the key functions of the group.

National Night Out, which takes place annually in August, consists of several block parties around El Cerrito where neighbors can get together to discuss concerns with each other, as well as police officers and elected officials. The prevention committee also plans to host a “family friendly” event in the spring to help promote the Bike Patrol Program.

“It’s important to share success stories to help reduce crime,” says Iarla.

Kirkland also stresses that sometimes residents may not realize how the police are fighting crime in the city. During the string of take-over robberies in Oakland earlier this year, Kirkland says their department sent out officers in “plain clothes, unmarked bikes, and unmarked cars.” Even if residents are not aware of that, “it’s okay by me,” says Kirkland.

Kirkland says the biggest challenge facing his department today is getting a new department building. Built in the late 50s, the current building is “not functional for today’s modernization,” according to Kirkland.

He emphasizes new officers are in limited quantity and having an old, outdated department appears less attractive to new recruits. “I understand its expensive [to build a new department] but we should take the steps to improve,” says Kirkland.

In the meantime, Kirkland and his department will continue making efforts to cut crime rates and encourage residents to remain active in this effort. He constantly stresses for residents to contact the Police Department if they feel suspicious about something in their neighborhood. Kirkland says, “I would rather have an officer respond to such a report and find nothing amiss versus not being called and later learn that a crime did occur.”

Chart: El Cerrito Crime Breakdown

Line Graph: Crime in Past Five Years

BY N’JERI EATON //

Three Richmond teenagers were arrested in El Cerrito in connection with a series of strong-arm robberies on a path near the BART tracks last week. The teens – two 16-year-old boys and a 13-year-old girl – are suspected of six robberies in a three day period.

The paths behind the El Cerrito Plaza and Del Norte BART stations have been a prime location for robberies. According to the El Cerrito Police log, 17 robberies have been reported since March along these paths.

BART employee Victor Martinez has been working as a station agent at El Cerrito Plaza for the last five years. He said muggings are “rare” but when they do happen, they are always a shock.

At the Del Norte BART station just a few blocks away, robberies are a more common crime. An unidentified station BART employee at the station said robberies happen “all day, everyday.” Despite the presence of a BART police station at Del Norte, thefts seem to plague the area.

Martinez believes thefts, often perpetrated by teenagers, signify a larger problem.

“It’s a tragedy that you’re seeing teenagers do it. To me it’s a social tragedy,” he said. “It’s telling me that something is going on here where our youth are not being mentored or guided.”

The Del Norte station agent said that iPods and high-end cell phones are the most frequently stolen item because they have a quick resell value. BART has encouraged commuters not to wear the white earbud headphones that come with iPods.

Laptops are another hot commodity for thieves. Martinez says that he warns commuters to not buy easily recognizable laptop bags.

“I tell them, they’re better off getting a backpack with a pillow in it,” Martinez said.

For more safety tips, watch this slideshow.

Both the station agents and the official BART Safety Guide say that staying alert and aware of their surroundings is the best way for passengers to stay safe. The Del Norte station agent suggests that passengers pass through the station as quickly as possible.

“If you want to be unsafe then hang out at the station,” he said. “Its not a matter of if but when.”

For more information, click on the following links

Video Guide to Passenger Safety
http://www.bart.gov/news/barttv/?&cat=34&id=295

Contact information by zone for BART Police
http://bart.gov/about/police/contact.aspxBART Safety Tips