The City Council will vote whether to approve the police department’s request to use electronic surveillance tools like intersection cameras, drones, and license plate readers.
How will this make UC Berkeley students safer?
A lot of the crime that happens in Berkeley is done by criminals coming in from surrounding communities. That’s because word has gotten out that Berkeley doesn’t have enough police officers.
Think about the 10 UC Berkeley students who were robbed at gunpoint in March. They were in a busy, commercial district when a car full of armed gunmen pulled up and robbed them. This kind of brazen crime is becoming the new norm in Berkeley because criminals no longer fear getting caught.
It’s time we changed this.
The police department is asking the City Council to give it a way to ask for surveillance equipment— intersection cameras, drones, and the like. This kind of technology will help the police positively identify criminals who are caught on camera. This makes it easier to prosecute them after, and prevents them from coming back into Berkeley to commit more crimes.
What you can do
You can call in during public comment at this City Council meeting, and you can email the council members using our easy email template 📧
If you call in to make public comment, please keep in mind we need you to speak during the 2nd public comment section (the one that applies to items on the Active calendar). If you try speaking about this item in the first section, they will cut you off and ask you to wait until the second section.
What should I say?
Depending on how many folks want to speak, you’ll either have 1 or 2 minutes to speak. (Always assume it’s 1 minute to be safe.) Use the ideas contained in our easy email template & put them in your own words. The most important thing to get across in your comments is to urge the council to vote YES on the Surveillance usage request.
Join our Slack group for realtime chat during the meeting
SafeBears has a private chat group that we use during meetings to help us coordinate our comments. Sometimes it can be a little confusing trying to figure out when to speak, raise your virtual hand on Zoom, and more. Just email us & we’ll be happy to add you to our private group!