Tag Archives: Michael Meehan
Berkeley school board considers weapons safety report
While Berkeley High should tighten its perimeter, enlist its uniformed police officer to patrol its edges and nearby park, have its security officers wear identifiable uniforms, and teach students about the impact of guns, it should not require students to wear a visible identification badges and use them to get on and off campus – at least not yet.
There are still too many unresolved issues on how to implement the mechanics of closing the campus and requiring ID badges to move forward quickly, school board members decided Wednesday night. The board directed Superintendent Bill Huyett and his staff to more closely examine those items and return with a more detailed and workable plan.
“We don’t have to do this by fall,” said Board member John Selawsky. “I just want to see us working on it.”
Huyett agreed that rushing into a new set of requirements might not be the best idea. … Continue reading »
Saving the history of the Berkeley Police Department
When Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan heard that the late vintner Jess Jackson might have once been a Berkeley police officer in the 1950s, he was intrigued. Wouldn’t that be an interesting detour in a life that took Jackson from a poor childhood in San Francisco to the top of Kendall-Jackson, of one of the country’s largest and most successful wine companies?
Meehan was similarly interested when he heard that Evelyn Einstein, the granddaughter of Albert Einstein who died in Albany on April 13, was affiliated with the Berkeley police department.
Meehan knew exactly what to do to verify the information.
He called Sgt. Michael J. Holland.
For the past 14 years, Holland, who first became a Berkeley cadet in 1968, has been the keeper of the Berkeley police department history. He’s the person who made sure files weren’t thrown out when the police department moved from the old Hall of Justice into its new public safety building in 2001. He’s the one who made sure that old case reports were filmed and put on microfiche. He’s the man who people call when they want to find out whether a relative ever worked for BPD. He’s even figured out all sorts of interesting trivia, like the date of the first automobile fatality in Berkeley. (November 8, 1910) … Continue reading »
Berkeley releases safety plan to reduce guns at schools
The Berkeley Unified School District released a plan on Tuesday to improve security at the high school, but didn’t address one of the major recommendations made by the police – to put security officers in uniform.
The district will pay to have a police officer on campus five days a week instead of four; accelerate training for security officers; hire an independent agency to examine the district’s security procedures; create an ad hoc committee to examine whether to partially close the campus and require students to display identification badges; and install internal locks on classroom doors, among other changes. The measures will cost the district $89,000, according to the report.
But the long list of changes do not address concerns raised by the Berkeley Police Department in a letter sent to Superintendent Bill Huyett on March 31. In the correspondence, Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan said his “top recommendation” for the security program is to put safety officers in uniform. … Continue reading »
Problems almost solved in Berkeley police evidence room
Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan plans to tell the city council tonight that, after a five year delay, the department is working quickly to address problems in its evidence room.
All the problems identified during an outside investigation in 2006 should be remedied by the end of May, according to Meehan, who expressed chagrin at the delay.
“It should not have taken this long,” said Meehan. “We have no reason for it. There is no excuse for it.”
In 2006, Berkeley Police Sgt Cary Kent admitted that he had been stealing narcotics from the evidence room he oversaw. He resigned from the department and was later convicted of grand theft.
The police chief at the time, Doug Hambleton, asked the California Commission on Peace Office Standards and Training (POST) to review evidence room procedures. The group identified 18 deficiencies.
City Auditor Ann-Marie Hogan took a look in 2010 at the progress made toward correcting the deficiences. Her report, which she will present tonight, concluded that the police department had only taken minimal steps toward fixing the problems.
But Meehan, who became police chief in December 2009, said he recently accelerated the process and the department has made major progress since Hogan’s report was released. While the audit, finished in December 2010, said the department had only completed three of the 18 suggestions made by the POST report, (Hogan increased that number to six as of last Friday,) about 45% of the suggestions have actually been carried out. The rest should be finished by May, said Meehan.
No spike in Berkeley crime because of injunction
Oakland’s three and a half month-old court order prohibiting 15 members of a north Oakland gang from gathering in public has not had much of an effect on south Berkeley’s crime rate.
The area south of Ashby Avenue to the Oakland border has not seen any increase — or decrease — in violent crime in the last few months, according to a report Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan will present to the City Council Tuesday night.
There were 40 … Continue reading »
Berkeley Police Department’s past continues to influence the officers of today
On Wednesday, Berkeleyside published the first part of a two-part interview with Berkeley’s new Police Chief, Michael Meehan. Today we give you Part II.
Deep in the bowels of the Berkeley Police Department is an L-shaped hallway that is a shrine to the department’s past.
There is an old lie detector encased in a wooden box, a scale to weigh inmates, and an autographed picture of President John F. Kennedy, probably signed when he came to UC … Continue reading »
Chief Meehan talks crime with District 1
On Wednesday night, while most Berkeley residents were probably watching the president’s State of the Union address, about 20 residents of Berkeley City Council District 1 attended a neighborhood meeting hosted Councilwoman Linda Maio.
The top item on the agenda was meeting new police chief Michael Meehan, who tried out many of the lines he apparently used at his swearing-in address today, including the one about the parking tickets he received his first day on the job.
Chief … Continue reading »
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