The Berkeley Police Accountability Board (PAB) met on February 19, 2025, and started off with a few public comments. The first comment was about an incident that was discussed in prior meetings of an instance where police showed up to a mental health call. There was a request to review the policy about the Police Department’s Care Unit and when they get calls. The woman making the public comment asked if the calls can go through dispatch instead of having to call a separate number for the Care Unit, one that she said very few people know about. In response to the public comment, Joshua Cayetano (Chair of the Board) said that there is going to be a focus group doing policy review and is going to incorporate members of the community. Additionally, the group is going to be partnering with diversity officer Rex Brown and they urge community members to come and talk about ways to improve police accountability in the community. Also the City Manager’s Office is undergoing an evaluation and crisis needs assessment for gun violence awareness on the care team. The evaluation of the Care Unit will also cover the calls from dispatch as requested by the public comment. They are holding the first ever regional meeting in San Francisco for gun violence which will be a recurring monthly. The  meeting is open to the public for collaboration and strategic planning. 

Next in the meeting Chief Jennifer Tate of the Berkeley Police Department gave a report. She said that they recently got some new highers but they are still short on staff. They currently have 147/181 staff which is 34 vacancies. Tate also talked about the 30 by 30 initiative which is a goal to have 30% of the police staff to be women by 2030. Currently the staff is only 17% women. Tate pointed out that research shows that diversity improves public safety and community trust. She and the police force want to help address any barriers women face while they join by allowing more structure to address data and recruitment. The police department is working on a department wide mentorship for all staff but in particular women. The mentorship includes opportunities for advancement and special meetings for the public safety policy committee. 

In the second round of public comment there were some additional speakers. One made a request for a policy change of Policy 10.10 to prevent officers who have a complaint against them to not be able to handle the individual again. There was a personal story shared about experiencing PTSD after a police officer altercation when seeing the same officer roughly handle another person of color. There were additional comments both urging the review of Policy 10.10. They want a policy decision sooner rather than later so that more instances of police officers  showing up to the 911 call that involve the same person who wrote the complaint against them. The board checked and determined that there is no current complaint that the policy change would interfere with so they accepted the policy review and assigned it to Board member Calivita who runs the Policy Review subcommittee. 

As the meeting wound down, there was a brief discussion on Policy 307 which is a policy about PIT (Precision Immobilization Technique) maneuvers for stopping cars. A PIT maneuver is used when trying to stop a fleeing vehicle and it is when the officer hits the back of a fleeing vehicle with their own causing it to spin, ideally spinning 180 degrees, and stop. The board was concerned about how many instances cars have flipped. They brought up data from the San Francisco Chronicle that shows that the pit maneuver has killed 100s of innocent bystanders. To end the meeting, there was a brief talk about wanting to do a public training on the Miranda rights because of the Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that stated that police won’t get sued if they fail to read the Miranda Rights. 

-Rhetta Lavinder-Hill