———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Pierantoni, Casimiro <CPierantoni@ci.berkeley.ca.us>
Date: Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 3:55 PM
Subject: Berkeley Police Area 1 Update
To:
Dear Fellow Community Members,
In a recent update we discussed the topic of auto burglary and how we
had experienced an increase in auto burglary numbers from December '09
through early January of this year. Recent numbers are showing that
we are no longer experiencing an increase, but as you already know,
auto burglary is a constant issue that we deal with in Area 1. Beat 2
continues to be the hot-spot for auto burglary activity in our area,
particularly Hearst Ave. west of Euclid Ave. and the neighborhoods
just north of the U.C. Berkeley campus. In the last week (since
Friday Jan. 29th), Beat 2 has had 10 reported auto burglaries compared
to 5 total auto burglaries for all of Beats 1, 3, and 18. Parking
lots in the central and western parts of the city are also common
haunts for auto burglars. Recently, we've become aware of auto
burglars targeting areas around schools during the morning student
drop-off and afternoon student pick-up times. Auto burglars are
targeting parents' cars. Often, valuables are left in plain sight
because the parents are only expecting to be away from their cars for
a short period of time. As we have mentioned many many times before,
taking a few moments to practice simple crime prevention techniques
prior to leaving your parked car may prevent you from being the victim
of an auto burglary.
Knowing that auto burglary is a significant issue not just in Area 1
but in all parts of the city, your patrol officers respond quickly to
calls of suspicious activity and prowling in hopes of finding an auto
burglar and possibly taking a prolific criminal (which many auto
burglars are) off the streets. An incident that occurred late last
month in West Berkeley illustrates this idea. In the early morning of
Jan. 28th, at about 2:25am, a security officer of a large hotel on
University Ave. was walking the rear parking lot of the establishment.
The hotel had been experiencing a significant number of auto
burglaries in its parking lot and the security officer had begun to do
frequent checks of the lot in hopes of preventing further burglaries.
As he was checking the parking lot, he saw a suspicious man walk out
from behind a large van that was parked in the lot. The security
officer stopped and let the man know that he had seen him by saying,
"What's up?" The man responded by saying, "What's up?" then quickly
walked away from the security officer and out of the parking lot.
Because of the man's clearly suspicious behavior, the security officer
suspected the man was prowling for auto burglary. The security
officer immediately asked a coworker to call the police then began
checking the lot for burglarized cars.
The call of the suspicious person was broadcast to the West Berkeley
patrol officers with a detailed description of the suspect. Officer
William Cocke #143 responded to the area quickly and began a search
for the suspect. Two blocks away from the hotel, on 6th St. just
south of University Ave., Officer Cocke detained a man that closely
matched the suspect description. At about that same time, Officer
Darren Kacalek #88 arrived at the hotel parking lot and began the
criminal investigation. Officer Kacalek met with the security officer
who pointed out a burglarized car he had located in the lot. Officer
Kacalek asked Officer Elizabeth Bashan #111 (who had arrived to assist
in the investigation) to transport the security officer to Officer
Cocke's detention to see if he could identify the detained individual
as the man he saw prowling in the lot. Officer Kacalek also went to
the detention location to interview the man. The security officer
positively identified the individual Officer Cocke had detained as the
man he had seen earlier in the hotel parking lot.
A records check of the man showed he was on probation; a condition of
that probation was that officers had the authority to search the man's
home. Officer Kacalek obtained the man's address from his probation
information. Officer Kacalek, knowing he wanted to search the man's
home in hopes of locating stolen property, asked the man where he
lived just to confirm he would be checking the correct address. The
man gave the same address that Officer Kacalek had obtained from his
probation records. When Officer Kacalek told the man he was going to
conduct a probation search of his home, the man decided to change his
story and told Officer Kacalek that he lived in a tent, "Down by the
railroad tracks."
Officer Kacalek and other officers searched the man's apartment (which
happened to be about two blocks from the hotel) and discovered
suspected stolen property from several previous auto burglaries. The
man's wife, who was home at the time officers were searching the home,
claimed to have no knowledge of where the items came from, just that
her husband had come home with them. While officers were searching
the apartment, a second auto burglary was discovered in the hotel
parking lot.
Timothy L. Logan (7/6/62) of Berkeley was arrested for 2 counts of
auto burglary, five counts of possession of stolen property, and for
violation of probation. Carolyn M. Grundy (11/29/60) of Berkeley was
arrested for five counts of possession of stolen property.
It seems safe to assume that Mr. Logan was a prolific auto burglar.
The security officer's immediate call to B.P.D., combined with the
quick and focused response by your police officers, resulted in the
arrest of a criminal that had victimized (and would have continued to
victimize) numerous community members. This combination of a quick
call to the police followed by a fast response by your patrol officers
has once again shown itself to be a powerful tool to combat crime.
B.P.D. has a renewed focus on fighting crime. Chief Michael Meehan
made it very clear in a speech he gave after his public swearing-in
ceremony on Jan. 28th that dealing with Berkeley's crime problem is a
priority for him. He also stated that the police department can't
solve the crime problem alone. I share the Chief's feelings and I'm
excited by the possibilities of what our community and our police
department can accomplish by working together.
As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions,
comments, or suggestions you may have.
Respectfully,
Officer Casimiro Pierantoni #96
Area Coordinator-Area 1
Community Services Bureau
Berkeley Police Department
Phn: (510) 981-5773
Fax: (510) 981-5819
cpierantoni@cityofberkeley.info>
–
Stefan Lasiewski
http://stefanco.com
W
