December 2017 Emeryville Crime Report: Violent Crime up 5%, Property Crime up 22%. EPD Launches CPA Program

January 26, 2018
15
4 mins read

The December 2017 Emeryville Crime report saw 268 total crimes reported for the month (up from 262 in November or +2%). Violent crime saw an increase of 5% for the year and property crime an increase of 22%.

Crime was up in eight of the thirteen statistical categories led by a 65% increase in auto burglaries. Crime was down in five statistical categories with commercial and residential burglaries seeing the largest drop.

The city notched its second statistical Homicide of the year after the shooting victim from a December incident in the Target parking lot succumbed to his injuries.

Total crimes reported for the year were up +20% from 2016.


Community & Police in Action (CPA) program

This neighborhood group is an active partnership between the City of Emeryville community and Emeryville Police where all areas of concern, quality of life issues and questions can be discussed through a communication line between the community and police personnel in their respective areas. These groups promoting positive exchange between community and police. The various neighborhood groups communicate mainly through email and regularly schedule meetings. To join your neighborhood group, send an email to fdauer@emeryville.org and include your name and address.

The EPD has assigned five neighborhood captains:

Watergate/Peninsula:

Sergeant Alton: ralton@emeryville.org

Christie Core/Shellmound

Sergeant Cassianos: acassianos@emeryville.org

North End/Doyle-Hollis

Sergeant Lee: rlee@emeryville.org

Park Avenue District

Sergeant Goodman: kgoodman@emeryville.org

Triangle/Star Intersection

Sergeant Hannon: jhannon@emeryville.org

Learn More about the program on The City Website.


REPORTING DISTRICT BOUNDARIES

The City of Emeryville is divided into small geographical areas that facilitate the Department’s efforts to tract crime and neighborhood problems, and allocate personnel resources to meet the service need. Crime statistics are reported by the EPD through CommunityCrimeMap.com. An archive of monthly crime statistics provided can be viewed on the city website.

[one_third last=”no”]
1. San Pablo Avenue
2. North Emeryville
3. Emery Bay
4. Peninsula
[/one_third]
[one_third last=”no”]
5. Shellmound
6. Artist Colony
7. San Pablo Avenue – South
8. Triangle
[/one_third]
[one_third last=”yes”]
9. East Bay bridge (East)
10. East Bay bridge (West)
11. Outside of City Limits
[/one_third]


REPORTING DISTRICT MATRIX:

The reporting district matrix lists the category and number of crimes reported by district. The descriptions below are “highlights” and are not provided for every crime reported.


HOMICIDE:

District 10

Target Parking Lot, 1555 40th St.: A shooting occurred, two males were injured, one male succumbed to his injuries weeks later.


ROBBERY:

District 1

62nd/Doyle St.: An attempted robbery of a bicycle and cell phone occurred. Suspects: (3) male juveniles.

District 2

Chevron, 1400 Powell St.: An attempted robbery occurred. A male suspect threatened a patron and demanded money. The patron left the area in his vehicle. EPD arrested the suspect shortly thereafter.

District 3

The Public Market 5959 Shellmound St. (near the pedestrian overcrossing): An attempted robbery at gunpoint occurred. Three male juveniles, 12-13 years old, one with a gun, demanded a females’ purse. The victim refused, and pushed the gun aside. The suspects then fled the area. The victim thought the juvenile had a BB gun.
5959 Shellmound St (Pedestrian Overcrossing): A strongarm robbery occurred. LOSS: A wallet, a cellphone, and a gold wedding band. Suspects: (3) Males, early 20s.
The Guitar Center, 5925 Shellmound St.: A male shoplifter used force to take merchandise from the store. LOSS: Denon DJ controller.
IFO 6001 Shellmound St.: A strongarm robbery occurred. LOSS: Purse. Suspects: (3) Males, early 20s. Suspect Vehicle: Silver sedan, no further description.

District 5

Parking lot of Burger King, 5701 Christie Ave.: A road rage incident between females resulted in one female taking the other females’ cell phone and wallet by force. The suspect threw the cell phone on the ground and removed items from the victim’s wallet. The victim recovered her cell phone and wallet.

District 7

Haven St./40th St.: A strong-arm robbery occurred. LOSS/Recovered: Motorcycle cover. EPD arrested a male suspect shortly thereafter.
At 40th/Watts St.: A male suspect approached the victim from behind, knocked the victim to the ground and placed a hard object against the victim’s head. The suspect said he had a gun, however a gun was not seen. LOSS: Cash from the victim’s wallet.

District 8

7-Eleven, 4000 San Pablo Ave.: A robbery at gunpoint occurred. LOSS: $100 cash from the register. Suspect: A male wearing a blue hooded “Champion” sweatshirt.

District 9

Pak n Save, 3889 San Pablo Ave.: Six shoplifters stole liquor from the liquor cabinet and used force to flee the store.
Parking lot of Home Depot, 3838 Hollis St.: A strongarm robbery occurred. LOSS: A rebar cutter, taken from the truck bed. The victim attempted to retrieve the loss and was punched in the face by the suspect. The suspect fled the area with the loss. Suspect: Male. Suspect Vehicle: Ford Explorer, white, older model, no plates.
Ulta, 3839 Emery St., #200: Two male shoplifters used force to take merchandise from the store. LOSS: Perfume.


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AGGRAVATED ASSAULT:

District 3

6300 block of Christie Ave.: A domestic violence incident resulted in the female throwing a computer at her boyfriend, nearly striking him. EPD arrested the female shortly thereafter.


COMMERCIAL BURGLARY:

District 3

5801 Christie Ave., #260: POE: Office door. LOSS: Handgun.

District 8

Emeryville Market, 4330 San Pablo Ave.: POE: Front door – Window smash. LOSS: Several packs of cigarettes. A second burglary occurred at this location.

District 9

1221 40th St.: An attempted burglary occurred. Two male juveniles attempted to pry open the maintenance room door. The juveniles fled the area when they were confronted by a tenant.


RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY:

District 1

5800 block of Beaudry St.: POE: Bedroom window. LOSS: A passport, a Playstation, $800 cash, and a safe.
Liquid Sugar Dr.: An attempted burglary occurred. A citizen reported a male suspect was on the neighbor’s fire escape. The suspect fled the area, however EPD arrested the suspect shortly thereafter.

District 2

1460 block of 65th St.: POE: Front door – No sign of force. LOSS: Passports, cameras, luggage, and chocolates.

District 7

1290 block of 55th St.: POE: Window – Unlocked. LOSS: A drill and a camera


AUTO THEFT:

Of the 19 vehicles reported stolen:

  • 9 vehicles were recovered intact
  • 7 vehicle was recovered but damaged
  • 1 vehicle was damaged and stripped
  • 2 reports were attempted thefts

The spreadsheet compares criminal activity relative to last year, averages from the previous 3 years and annual totals for the year.


*Categories not included in Part 1 Crimes
N/C: Not Calculable

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Rob Arias

is a third generation Californian and East Bay native who lived in Emeryville from 2003 to 2021. Rob founded The E'ville Eye in 2011 after being robbed at gunpoint and lamenting the lack of local news coverage. Rob's "day job" is as a creative professional.

15 Comments

  1. Rob, could you please request a formal public statement from EPD as to why they have begun censoring suspect race out of the blotter, who on City Council requested this, and why EPD complied.

    This is ridiculous. We’ve got 13 year olds holding up women at gun point and the police chief is worried it might now be politically incorrect to report a complete description including race. Are you f—-in serious?!?!

    Stupidity runs amok in Eville. The police chief of all people should know and respect the difference between racial profiling and reporting crime. I’m sure criminals are pleased that Emeryville is squeamish about honestly, consistently and completely reporting suspect descriptions. The people getting robbed, beaten, and mugged not so much.

    You can’t change reality by hiding it.

  2. The problem is “black” or “hispanic” or “white” 13 year old is not a complete description and taints people’s perception on all kids of a particular group unfairly. The old normal was that if race wasn’t mentioned you could pretty much guess the suspect was white. Skin tone, perceived ethnicity should only be mentioned as part of a very detailed description that includes things like approximate height and weight, specific distinctive physical characteristics, etc. This is not a ridiculous example of political correctness, but an appropriate way to stop reinforcing corrosive racial stereotyping in our society.

    • Except that it doesn’t…Describing a suspect as 13 years old doesn’t taint people’s perception of all young people. Describing a suspect as male doesn’t taint people’s perceptions of all men. Describing a suspect as white doesn’t taint people’s perceptions of all white people. People are not idiots.

      The point of a description is not to successfully describe a person so we can instantly recognize that person on the streets. No description does that. Even photographs don’t achieve that.

      Descriptions of crimes allow us to connect our intuition with knowledge of crimes occurring in our community and they allow us to recognize if we saw something before or after the actual crime that might help identify the suspects.

      There is nothing about reporting the race of crime suspects which increases or decreases racial stereotyping. Censoring the reporting of race on the other hand communicates that the actual facts must be hidden to maintain a perception of equality…which is nonsense.

      If one group is committing more crimes than another, then that can and should be discussed, confronted, and understood. The reasons behind the disparity should be addressed. Reality can be taken head on.

      Should we hide other facts? For example, should we avoid mentioning income inequality because it propagates racial stereotypes about poverty? When there is a racial performance gap in one of our schools, should we bury that information because it would propagate racial stereotypes about academic performance? Which bits of reality can the public actually deal with? And which should we hide?

      You don’t get rid of racial stereotypes by hiding the truth. You don’t achieve equality by pretending inequality doesn’t exist. You don’t fight crime by censoring descriptions of criminals. And you don’t help people overcome unjust stereotypes by hiding the facts that would invalidate those stereotypes.

      • Well said.

        I’m interested in knowing what is actually going on in my community and more than caring about the race of any individual criminal, I care about freedom of information and have ardent distain for attempts to be manipulated or controlled through only offering the information someone else has deemed politically adventageous.

        Officers have said that most of the crime is being committed by white people, which includes the guy who waltzed into my building with a 10 inch knife and proceeded to hang out and go through everyone’s xmas packages in the lobby, in plain sight. So yes, knowing race can be helpful and instructive, espcially in the case of my neighbors who might have some really naive and racist presumptions.

      • Your flat statement that “there is nothing about reporting the race of crime suspects which increases or decreases racial stereotyping” is, in my opinion, entirely wrong. Look at the reports by people of color on Next Door who passionately complained about posts including the race of “suspicious” people and the way those lead neighbors to regard them as possible criminals. Your own statement that knowing the race of criminals allows you to “connect your intuition” regarding who may be suspects, says to me that it makes you suspicious of anyone of the corresponding color that fits a very general description. Having statistics that include race is a very different thing and you’re right, we as a society should look those in the face and attempt to analyze the cause of and seek solutions to disparities. The practice of omitting race from vague descriptions (sometimes the only descriptor besides sex) of criminals isn’t some far left idea snatched on by Emeryville, but a growing practice by neighborhood blogs, journalists and responsible police departments around the country.

        And I have to say that in my experience there are plenty of people who act and think like idiots at least some of the time. They don’t need any reinforcement of the unconscious racism which has been fostered to some degree in all of us who have grown up in this society.

      • The reporting of a single instance of an action does not lead normal people to make blanket generalities about every person who shares an attribute with the actor. The reporting of a single crime does not lead normal people to assume that all people who share the race of the suspect are therefore suspicious.

        Making such a leap is ridiculous, ignorant, and astoundingly unlikely. The theory that people generally do this is nonsensical. We don’t see a black man get into a green car and assume all black men drive green cars. We don’t see a white man with a gray mustache and assume all white men have gray mustaches. We don’t see a particular race in a crime report and assume everyone of that race is committing crimes.

        If a person did this, the problem would not be the factual reporting of the crime, but that a fool extrapolated a single fact in the most irrational way possible. When you have a problem caused by the combination of a fact and a fool, you don’t fix the problem by hiding the fact to honor the fool.

        And this fool (if he exists anywhere but hypothetical arguments) will be the same fool whether or not we bubble wrap the world for him by redacting all facts that might lead him to conclude incorrect things.

        If every race is committing crime proportionally, then a blotter will reflect that and the majority group will be shown to be committing most of the crime. If crime is not being committed proportionally, the blotter will reflect that and we, as a society, are forced to deal with that reality rather than hide from it.

        Hiding inequality does not make it disappear. Exposing inequality, talking about racial disparities, and addressing problems that afflict different communities at different levels are real remedies.

        Asking the government and the media to censor reality from us and for us is not.

    • I would normally consider moderating this comment because it is clearly not from John (although I admit it made me chuckle). John doesn’t even respond to my personal emails so I don’t know why he’d respond to my stories.

      Regarding the removal of racial descriptions, Crime Analyst Adrienne Robinson provided the following note to me recently:
      “The Chief implemented a new policy to remove suspect descriptions from the Matrix report, unless there are exigent circumstances that would place the public in danger.”

      • Gun toting 13 year olds do not place the public in danger?

        And this statement does not answer the question that needs to be answered: Why was this done? Who requested the change in policy? What crime fighting rationale is there for censoring the matrix? And what public input was gathered before making the change or was this a unilateral policy choice by the chief of Police?

      • Rob, EPD doesn’t have the right to withhold this information.

        Under the California Public Records Act (GC 6250-6270), police calls for service logs, arrest records, and crime reports are public records. They can only be redacted for some very specific and very limited reasons (for example, protecting victims and informants).

        Hiding the race of crime suspects from the public as a political favor is not one of those reasons.

        EPD isn’t required to generate a new report for you, but any report they are generating is yours for the taking for the cost of duplication.

        EPD should not have taken this action to begin with, but a simple Public Records request by the unrelenting (and well paid!) journalists at the EvilleEye resolves the issue.

        You can add crime fighting to your resume.

        Someone in Emerville should.

  3. Rob – FYI I have now moved from Bay St as we discussed. The increase in crime is no surprise to me, it’s gotten so bad and I felt a prisoner in my own place. I know this was by choice, but I had no interest in taking my laptop to work out of my fave local coffee shops, or the public market. I chose to leave my backpack (even without laptop) at home many times to avoid someone thinking I was carrying (yet they carry guns?). I stopped going to Target on 40th completely. I limited my bike riding and if I had to leave it locked, I truly expected to come out to it being stolen. I wish all of you the best and I hope that between the community and the police you can wrangle the problem under control. Tonight I read your post about the woman being robbed over the weekend on Bay St and cried a little, it’s so sad that we have become victims in our community. Best wishes and godspeed E-ville…

    • Really bummed to lose a good E’villain like you Peter, but I understand. The cons of living here seem to be vastly outweighing the pros lately. You pay exorbitant rent and city services and public safety are laking. When I moved here 14 years ago, I was optimistic of this city. I honestly can’t say that anymore because of our lack of leadership at the local government level. Good luck and stay in touch.

  4. So we have a robbery at gunpoint and two strong arm robberies near the Public Market including one on the pedestrian walkway.

    Now last night we have a robbery at gunpoint just across the walkway a few hundred feet away in front of the Amtrak. The kid who was robbed last night was shot, found bleeding in the street, and is now in critical condition.

    Now, for f—-‘s sake, can we finally get suspect descriptions from the first three similar crimes? Or does someone literally have to die for us to know what the people doing the mugging in our neighborhood look like? Or do we not even get descriptions then?

    The irresponsibility of this “progressive” crap is unbelievable. The kid who got robbed and shot, if he lives,what’s he supposed to do? Take solace in the fact that he was protected from accidentally racially profiling the person who shot him? He’s supposed to be happy he was prevented from knowing what the people mugging people in the neighborhood looked like? He wasn’t allowed to have a clue that might have made him think twice at the suspicious guy loitering on the corner, because that would have been so terrible?

    No. This right now is terrible.

    Dumb. Irresponsible, idiotic crap. If the kid dies, someone needs to lose their damn job over this. And whoever made this change from city council needs to take responsibility and resign. Such stupidity.

    Kids should not have to die because of politicians.

    • Let’s be honest. Everyone knows who is committing these crimes.

      Ask yourself what unfortunate encounters have you ever experienced while living in Emeryville and there is your answer.

      I don’t who leaders think they are fooling but I am finding we have some really stupid neighbors based on the leadership they have chosen.

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