The Police Accountability Board (PAB) held their regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday the 23th of April. To start the meeting, Berkeley Police Department (BPD) employee Arlo Malmberg of planning and accountability gave a report and stated that they will have difficulty with their staffing shortage because there is currently a hiring freeze. Additionally, he reported that on April 13th there was a police involved shooting that is still being investigated.

Next during the subcommittee reports, PAB Commissioner Kitty Calavita reported that she is working on submitting a policy proposal for situations in which police officers are responding to a call placed by a citizen who had previously filed a complaint against them. This past week, she said she had been looking into similar policies at other California police agencies and determined that BPD would be the first agency to have a policy for these situations if it is approved. She said that she hopes it can be a framework for other police departments to follow.

As of now the PAB has been looking into ways they can review policy 415; Criminal immigration violation – “Any federal criminal immigration violation that penalizes a person’s presence in, entry or reentry to, or employment in, the United States. This does not include any offense where a judicial warrant already has been issued.” (https://berkeleyca.gov/) They want to review the policy because of recent actions taken by the Trump administration, such as ICE entering schools, potentially unlawful ongoing deportations and the other arguably unconstitutional policies.

Finally the Director of Police Accountability, Hansel Aguilar gave a policy review report on the detention and release of inebriated individuals. This was prompted by a case in January of 2022 where a 75 year old man was taken into custody by BPD for being publicly intoxicated. They first took him to Grayson Street Shelter to help him sober up but were turned away because they weren’t accepting walk-ins. They then brought him to BPD where he didn’t get booked because of a visible skin condition. He was then released based on the California Penal Code 849b which allows for the release if the person being booked for intoxication can now care for themselves. However, the Coroner ultimately reported that his BAC level sayed at 0.128 for several hours which greatly exceeds the legal limit of 0.08.

According to the incident summary the man fell asleep outside BPD and later an officer brought him blankets. At 5:30 am another officer saw the man lying shirtless and unresponsive. Then the Berkeley Fire Department came and said he was unresponsive, shaking, and cold to the touch and moved him to a hospital. He was then pronounced dead at 7 am. The Alameda County Coroner stated that although his Blood Alcohol Content was 0.128, he had died from natural causes.

As a result of what happened the PAB reviewed four different policies; Senior and Disability Victimization, Medical Aid and Response, Sobering and Detoxification Center, and Temporary Custody of Adults. Some recommendations that the report had was to require a medical clearance for people who are rejected from jail and being detained for public intoxication. This would help ensure that the individual is sober by having a medical professional deem them healthy and possibly doing a breathalyzer test before release. The next recommendation was to identify the Cherry Hill Sobering Center as a place to take an intoxicated person for detoxification. This would help promote diversion away from the criminal justice system instead of punishment if the sole offense is intoxication. This recommendation also included a proposal for a more local sobering option since Cherry Hill has limited resources because it is used by the whole region. The next recommendation was about using artificial intelligence to help identify medical emergencies. The last recommendation was for Berkeley City Council to suggest to the California Legislature that it amend California Penal Code 647 that would be similar to other state legislation like the state of Massachusetts. This would clarify the BAC level for release and would offer a breathalyzer test to an individual before release.

–Rhetta Lavinder-Hill & Najayah McNeil