Beast Blog

Crimes in Berkeley? Where?

I'm a long-time devotee of Richard Brenneman of the Berkeley Daily Planet's controversial but always entertaining Police Blotter, and oft quoted Berkeley Police Department Public Information Officer Joe "just the facts" Okies, but I am often curious about exactly where the crimes reported upon took place. The city of Berkeley used to publish great crime maps, but gave up updating them in 2003, for reasons that aren't clear to me. Now all they publish is a daily list of "Police Bulletins", as individual PDF files, the least accessible format imaginable.

To the rescue come Scott Brodsky and Google. In a brilliant mashup, Scott has automated a process for getting the data from the Berkeley police bulletins, and used the Google Maps API to layer the locations of the reported crimes on a Google map of Berkeley on his site, Incidentlog.com.

Check out the screenshot I took. Looks to me like Ashby between 80 and Telegraph has had a bit of a crime problem in the last month. You can even click on a marker, and get details of the crime. RSS feeds to come, writes Scott. Check the site out, fellow police blotter junkies.

Cross-posted from the Berkeley Blog

Latest Berkeley/Oakland Border Shooting

"BERKELEY/Shooting Victim was hit numerous times" - Chronicle

And here's an email I received through a neighborhood mailing list:

From: Don Link
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 19:18:31 -0700
Subject: [OPD] Shooting on Adeline 8/16/04

Re the last 2 postings about the trouble on Adeline, there was a shooting at around 2 pm today, a very serious one at very close range, 3 or 4 of the shots probably at point-blank range. It occurred at Harmon and Adeline (half of that block is Harmon, the Berkeley half, the other half 65th St. in Oakland. The shooting occurred on the Northeast corner of this intersection.

I was driving to the Post Office on Adeline and approached the corner just as the shooting started. Three or four shots with no shooter in sight, then 2-3 more as he turned in the middle of the crosswalk across Harmon and fired again. He then ran south on Adeline and either had a bicycle waiting, or took one, and rode off towards Alcatraz. He crossed Alcatraz onto a small street/parking area next to the commercial area on Alcatraz and continued toward 63rd St. and 62nd St. I attempted to follow him, but traffic and the signals made effective pursuit impossible.

Berkeley PD and OPD were combing the neighborhoods of Beat 11 for the perpetrator. He is an African American male 18-22, 5'7'' or 5'8'', with a muscular build and a weight of probably 150-170 lbs. He is clean-shaven and was wearing a black or midnight blue knit cap and white clothing otherwise. His weapon was a semi-automatic gun-metal blue or black handgun with a very deep pop when the shots were fired. I don't think it was a 9 mm, but something larger, maybe a .45 caliber.

I am sorry if the young man died. There was a pool of blood just seconds after the shooting and it took the Berkeley ambulance 4-5 minutes to arrive at the site and begin triage.

I spoke to the young man's brother who appears to be middle eastern, perhaps Yemeni. One or two other relatives were there as well. Perhaps they own a business in the immediate area. They saw the perpetrator more clearly than I.

I made it a point to drive the beat looking for the perpetrator or perhaps an abandoned bicycle. I went to the hot spots to see if anyone looked familiar, but saw no one who fit the description.

I will be very interested to learn about motive and particularly whether there is any connection to the North/South Oakland/Berkeley war that went on earlier this summer and last summer with disastrous consequences.

It surprises me how upsetting and disconcerting incidences like this are after all of them that I have read about and heard about. The finality of the actions, the brazenness of the perpetrator, the aftermath and the disruptions it causes for hundreds of people unconnected to the victim and connected alike. A train wreck and a disaster for everyone involved.

I sincerely hope that the case is solved and solved quickly. The number of shots and the close-range quality of the incident make it more of an execution than a shooting. I don't believe that the victim was armed.

Don Link, Shattuck NCPC Beat 11

Berkeley PD's Shiny New Website

From the inbox:

Greetings,

Effective today, 4-21-04, the Berkeley Police Department has made a major
change to our website. We are now putting police bulletins on the website. These bulletins are generated daily for the officers to see all of the crimes reported in the city. The same bulletin, is then edited for public viewing and published onto the website.

By putting these bulletins on the website, we hope to give the public greater access to see all crimes reported to the Berkeley Police
Department.

The goal will be to update the website with these bulletins at least 3 days a week to allow for the most timely possible release of the
information.

Any questions about this can be emailed to police@ci.berkeley.ca.us or you can call the Community Services Bureau at 981-5806.

Thanks, Kevin Schofield

Bicyclist Is Shot in Berkeley...

reads the headline of a depressing Oakland Tribune article. 62nd and MLK. This is *right* on the Berkeley/Oakland border. When I head south from Berkeley, I usually take Shattuck or Telegraph (there's not much on MLK), and it seems like those are safer routes.

Sigh.

APB

BERKELEY POLICE DEPARTMENT 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA 94704 (510) 981-5900, TDD: (510) 981-5799, police@ci.berkeley.ca.us Roy L. Meisner, Chief of Police

*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***

Pedestrian Kidnapped and Robbed- Suspect Being Sought

Contact:
Officer KevinSchofield
Badge #91
BPD
Public Information Officer
(510) 981-5752

Berkeley, California (Tuesday, December 16, 2003) – On 10-14-03 at approximately 11:30p.m., a 76-year-old Berkeley resident was walking on Parker Street at Shattuck Avenue when a car slowed down as it neared him. Two suspects got out of the car, brandished the victim with a knife and gun forcing him into their car. The victim was repeatedly punched in the head as they drove.

They drove to an Oakland bank near Lake Merritt where they forced him to withdraw money from an ATM. After getting the money, they drove away leaving the victim stranded.

From the ATM, investigators have obtained a photograph of one of the armed suspects and hope that releasing this photo will help solve this case. BPD Robbery Detective Sergeant Ed Spiller says, “We are hoping anyone who may recognize this individual will contact us so we can solve this case and hopefully prevent this person from committing another violent crime.”

The three suspects are described as:
Black Male Adults, early to mid 20’s, 5’10” - 6’00” with medium builds. The suspect vehicle is described a green, late 80’s-early 90’s, full size American “low-rider” type car.

The Berkeley Police Department is asking for help from anyone who may have information about this incident or the picture above. You may remain anonymous. Please contact the BPD Robbery Detail at 510-981-5742 or email tips to police@ci.berkeley.ca.us