Get Ceasefire Back on the Rails
Only two years ago, inspired by the city council’s commitment to reduce the Berkeley Police Department’s budget, the City of Berkeley was actively engaged in a Reimagining Public Safety initiative. Community outcry to transfer investment from the police department to community services echoed loudly through the hills and the flatlands, while Black Lives Matter signs appeared all over the city. So, did this happen?
In a word, no. In fact, over the past couple of years, the police budget has ballooned. In Fiscal Years 2020 & 2021, BPD spent $79 million. In FY22, which ended June 30, BPD spent $83 million. The police budget increased to $87 million this year and to $89 million for FY24. Meanwhile, the Housing and Community Services budget declined by over $7 million (or 16%) from the FY22 budget and is now less than half of the police budget.
Worse, doubling down on police funding has had no effect on crime rate: it has remained flat, according to data provided by the BPD, while the police budget continues to increase.
So what happened with the extensive, years long Reimagining Public Safety initiative? The most promising aspect of this initiative — and something the community has been asking for for a long time — is $2 million in funding to start a Ceasefire program in Berkeley. $1 million was allocated this year and $1 million for next year to create and implement a gun violence reduction and prevention program.
Berkeley has all of the ingredients that would make a Ceasefire program an unconditional success: national experts who have designed and implemented Ceasefire type programs locally and nationally actually live in Berkeley; these experts have relationships with those who are most at risk of being a victim and/or perpetrator of gun violence; and we have city leaders who claim public safety as one of their utmost priorities.
Instead, four months into the fiscal year, nothing has happened. Our much needed Ceasefire program continues to sit on the shelf.
In mid-October, the City Manager issued a memo. It states that BPD has been assigned to design and implement the Ceasefire program. Even though those most at risk to be victims or perpetrators — or both — of gun violence often don’t trust the police. To assign the leadership of this initiative to BPD is tone deaf to the realities in our community and may have devastating consequences. If someone on the city council had the will to make this program happen as soon as possible, would Angel and Jazy Sotelo Garcia — the Berkeley High School brothers who were shot and killed on October 2nd — still be alive today? We’ll never know. Let’s not take any more unnecessary risks.
Our city leaders give lip service to reimagining public safety, but always end up with the same proven ineffective response: more police. Change will have to come from the people. We must vote in new city leaders.
This article first published in the Berkeley Times on November 3, 2022.
