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District
2 Crime Meeting
Angela
Gallegos-Castillo recently joined the City of Berkeley’s Neighborhood
Services division of the City Manager’s office in March of 2007.
She has worked with community-based organizations for over 25 years
and involved in research and evaluation for 15. Her background is in
adolescent development, including youth of color identity formation,
sexuality, alcohol use, juvenile justice, alternatives to incarceration,
family and youth violence prevention and resiliency. She has extensive
experience working with Latino community-based-youth-serving agencies in
the Bay Area and across California as a community liaison, evaluator, and
researcher. She received her PhD in Ethnic Studies from CAL and is a
resident of South Berkeley and is mother of two children, Emma Alejandra,
9 and Federico Daniel, 2, and is married to Federico Castillo, a natural
resources economist.
The Neighborhood Services Program was developed as a team
project out of the City of Berkeley’s Leadership Development Program
(LDP). Neighborhood Services
embodies a community-centric approach to the way the City relates to the
community and addresses its needs. Neighborhood
Services philosophy recognizes that community problems are often complex
and that addressing those problems requires the cooperative efforts of
residents, businesses, educational institutions, City departments, and the
City Council. The
Neighborhood Services Program seeks to engage and empower the community to
work in partnership with the City to address its own problems, and to
mobilize City resources across departmental lines. The Neighborhood Services Program was developed to improve
service delivery though more effective communication and coordination
among staff and citizens. Neighborhood
Services Liaisons develop strong relationships with community members, and
possess a deep understanding of community values and concerns.
In practice to fulfill these community needs, Neighborhood Services
Liaisons’ duties run the gamut: organizing
the City's graffiti
abatement program, addressing chronic dumping problems, organizing
neighborhood clean-up efforts, helping to hone billboards and the City's
nuisance abatement procedures, abating problem properties, partnering on
civil cases and promote economic development in the main corridors.
Neighborhood Services focus on non-policing approaches to improve
the overall quality of life and complement policing efforts.
Beyond specific services, Neighborhood Services Liaisons are also
meant as an information resources for the community.
·
The Alameda County DA's Victim-Witness Assistance Division
began in 1974 as the first victim-witness office in California and one of
the first eight in the nation. There are two units within the division: ·
Victim Consultant Unit: The Victim Consultant Unit
provides crisis intervention, emergency assistance, resource and referral
counseling, direct counseling, assistance in property return, orientation
to the criminal justice system, court escort, case monitoring information,
employer intervention, notification of friends and others, public
presentations, and training programs for agencies within the criminal
justice system. ·
Claims Unit: The Claims Unit provides assistance in the
filing of victim compensation claims under the State Compensation Program
for victims of crime. The Claims Unit, under contract with the State Board
of Control, is responsible for verifying all compensation claims on behalf
of victims of crime and their families in Alameda County. ·
Alameda County’s DA’s office is more heavily focused
on the victim than many other DA offices.
·
The police department’s responsibility is to do the
investigation, who brings the case to the DA’s office who evaluates the
case and speaks with the officer to get details about the case. ·
The charging standard is “beyond a reasonable doubt” ·
Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse is for lower level offenses and
Rene C. Davidson Superior Court is for felony cases. ·
In a given year Alameda County prosecutes approximately
25,000 misdemeanor and 10,000 felony cases. ·
In drug cases it is common to pursue felony probation –
This is so that if there is a subsequent offense, the DA’s office can
pursue a probation hearing instead of establishing a new case, so as to
manage the DA’s caseload. Officer Frankel joined
the Berkeley Police Department in 2000 after 5 years in the Air Force.
He worked in Patrol until 2003, when he moved on to the Drug Task
Force. He returned to patrol
in 2005 for a year, and then joined the Community Services Bureau in
January of 2007 as an area coordinator.
·
Much of this type of cooperation is not noticed at the
patrol level. Much of the
coordination comes into play at the detective level. ·
The cooperation comes into play at the beat office level
once the detectives have collaborated on specific problems.
The information that has been produced after the departments have
conferred is relayed to the beat officers during the daily role call, ie.
what individuals are doing what, where the problem areas are, etc.
·
During summer they alter the hours of the SEU to have more
officers on at a given time. Officer
Stephen Mitchell
·
Houses a truancy program to work with parents and teachers
and has incorporated social services to address some of the problems that
may be contributing to their truancy ·
Alameda County just opened a Juvenile Justice Center in
San Leandro that was conceived as more than just a detention center.
It incorporated a multitude of community organizations that are
youth focused. ·
Alameda County also has McCullum Youth Court:
A youth court to preside over lesser offenses, ie. petty theft, vandalism, possession of alcohol and
marijuana, assault and battery, and trespassing. ·
Investigating officers refer the case to youth court,
where program coordinators prepare the case for court.
A professional attorney presides over the youth court as the judge,
while youth represent the prosecution and the defense.
Hearings take place the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month
from 5:00 to 9:00 pm at the Wiley Manuel Courthouse in downtown Oakland. ·
The sentence includes certain mandatory sentence
components, such as serving on at least two jury duties, community
service (12 - 50 hours) and 6 weeks of gender specific cognitive
behavioral workshops. Discretionary sentence components include
restitution, an essay and/or a letter of apology, Healthy
Risks or Healthy Boundaries & Positive Self Expression class,
and additional counseling. ·
http://www.youthcourt.org/index.html
Should we call in gunshots if we hear them followed by
sirens?
Is there a system to backtrack stolen property?
What is being done in relation to prostitution?
·
In Berkeley there is a competition for resources.
SEU handles both narcotics and prostitution.
Narcotics cases receive more attention due to the violence involved
in the drug trade and SEU can pursue a felony case rather than a
misdemeanor case.
What is the response after a high profile incident or
perceived “hot spot”?
Is there any indication of gangs from Oakland moving into
the Berkeley area? And are
there any organized prostitution rings?
Do shoes tied together and thrown over power lines
indicate gang and/or drug activity?
Who pays for the damages sustained during a police
raid/bust?
February 10th at noon there was a large
incident at Idaho and Harmon, what was it?
·
Since the time of the meeting, the arrested parties took a
deal with the DA’s office and received 1 year in County Jail and 5 years
felony probation. Why was there such an upsurge in car thefts recently?
How can we be helpful as a community when we have an
ongoing issue, ie. persistent drug or prostitution activity?
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