SAFEBEARS CALLS ON BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL TO APPROVE FLOCK SAFETY TECHNOLOGY

WHAT: Flock Safety Technology etc. (Agenda Item 1a)

WHEN: City Council Special Meeting Thursday, May 7, 2026, 5:00 PM Pacific Time

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

• EMAIL council in support of this resolution ASAP. Use this prefilled email link, https://tinyurl.com/SafeBearsMay7,or create your own email. Be sure to ADD YOUR NAME to the mail, and even better ADD A SHORT PERSONALIZED MESSAGE TO INCREASE THE EMAIL’S IMPACT.

• SPEAK in support at the City Council meeting by Zoom or phone or in person

• READ the agenda for the May 7 meeting (and get the Zoom link to participate)

SafeBears supports this resolution because cameras work – both to catch perpetrators of crime and to deter wrongdoers from acting in the first place. The responsible use of technology is especially important in high-crime areas like Berkeley that have understaffed police departments. Berkeley has enacted robust privacy guardrails to prevent information leakage.

READ THE BOARD’S LATEST COMMENT TO COUNCIL

Dear Mayor Ishii and Councilmembers Kesarwani, Taplin, Bartlett, Tregub, O’Keefe, Blackaby, Lunaparra and Humbert:

We are parents of UC Berkeley undergraduate students and officers of SafeBears, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to make California’s flagship university safer for students. With a reach of over 2,500 Cal parents and community members through our Facebook group and email network, our organization gives voice to the young adults earning their degrees at the best public university in the world. 

We urge Councilmembers to approve Item 1a on the calendar of the May 7, 2026, Special Meeting (“Public Safety Technology: Surveillance Technology Ordinance and Police Equipment Ordinance Approvals, Policy Updates, and Contract Authority”).

As we’ve said in our previous two comments (in March and September 2025), SafeBears supports the responsible use of technology to enhance public safety. While a few instances of Flock information-sharing have generated headlines, the vast majority of Flock-using jurisdictions, in the Bay Area, throughout California, and nationwide, deploy ALPRs and cameras responsibly to deter, apprehend and prosecute wrongdoers while protecting civil liberties. 

Berkeley, perhaps more than any other city, has established robust privacy guardrails, with its Sanctuary City ordinance and surveillance and police equipment ordinance, as well as staff’s careful editing of the city’s Flock contract. 

With Berkeley police staffing at a record low and BPD losing officers to San Francisco and retirement, Berkeley simply cannot afford to remove its ALPRs, which in 2025 “contributed to at least 37 stolen vehicle recoveries, played a role in 58 arrests, and supported 121 cases,” according to BPD. 

One of those 2025 cases was a UC Berkeley sorority house burglary in which a man allegedly watched women in the shower room and stole underwear from their bedrooms. With the help of ALPRs, the suspect was identified and tracked to his home, where he was arrested with a cache of illegal gun parts and ammunition. Given that this suspect already had multiple felony convictions as well as an open sex crime case, it’s fortunate that BPD was able to apprehend him quickly.

In 2024, BPD credited license plate reader technology with helping to identify the man who repeatedly fired a gun near UC Berkeley, placing students in grave danger:

• The alleged gunman confronted four UC Berkeley students on Telegraph Avenue, “pulled a gun from his waistband, pointed it at the students, told them to run and fired a round into the air,” per BPD.

• Separately, one roundpenetrated an occupied bedroom of a Southside UC Berkeley residence hall.

We’re detailing the distressing facts of these two cases not to be inflammatory but to make a crucial point: Council must weigh the speculative harm from data leakage (speculative because leakage has not and likely will not happen in Berkeley) against the actual harm from the serious crime that continues to impact UC Berkeley students and all city residents. In our view, that balance tips sharply in favor of the deployment of ALPRs and cameras.

Respectfully submitted,

SafeBears, Inc.