The Burlingame Voice

The Wheels of Justice

I had jury duty yesterday along with about 300-400 other people.  As the courts restart, a few people have noted that lots of people are getting called in, but yesterday was a whole lot more people than I have ever seen called.  It all happens at the San Mateo Event Center and uses the Jockey Club as the entry point.  The photos below don't capture even half of the crowd.  For the size of the group and the Covid state we are in, it was pretty well run.  When we each were asked if we could be available for a six-day trial, I figured we were in for a long day.

The last time I was called, it was an full-day affair just to seat a two-day jury and this looked like it could be several days.  But two and a half hours in, just as the first group of us were being told to turn off our phones and remove any hats to enter, we were all excused.  Now I know why as described here.  Taking the plea was my guess at the time.  If you get called soon, be sure to follow the instructions about dressing in layers, bring snacks and water, avoid 25th Ave eastbound getting there (it's closed) and make sure your phone is fully charged.  The wheels of justice turn slowly, but they do turn.  I just wonder if there isn't a more efficient way that wouldn't violate the randomness of the process.

 

2020: The Year in Crime

We took a comprehensive look at the five year crime statistics in B'game last year--you can find it here.  I find it important to do this annually because reading the daily Alert@Crimegraphics.com email can cause a forest-for-the-trees effect to kick in.  In checking with BPD for the 2020 update, some of the categories have been called out more specifically--Thefts from Vehicles (i.e. unlocked cars) is now called out in addition to Vehicle Burglaries (from locked cars).  A lot of car burglaries used to happen at the Bayfront hotels, but my guess is that dropped off substantially with some moving into the neighborhoods, but overall the sum of the two is lower than 2019.  Still 34 vehicles broken into per month is more than 400 for the year.

Two other new break-outs are Construction site theft and Package thefts.  Package thefts are the big surprise for me--only 4 per month--just watching the incidents on the Ring camera site would seem to indicate more than that--maybe people just don't bother to report them.  The "Other thefts" total from past years has been discontinued so we cannot compare 2020 totals with the 127 crimes per month of 2019.  The new tracking totals to 71 per month or about 850 of these crimes per year.  Here are the totals

 

Monthly Average                        2016    2017    2018    2019      2020

Residential Burglaries                   5        2            3        3          2

Vehicle Burglaries                      23      25        21       39         20

     Thefts from Vehicles                                               -          14

Commercial Burglaries                  9      4            5        4            6

     Construction site theft                                             -           1

     Package thefts                                                        -            4

Other Thefts                               60      51        56        61          -

Robberies                                    1        1            1        2          2

Stolen Vehicles                            9        6          4         6           9

Vandalism                                  13    13          11       12          13

As I noted last year, there are other crimes not included here especially the really serious ones, but this is a good Quality of Life baseline.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Covid Fine

I'm poaching the Five Man Electrical Band's sole hit song "Signs" for this post about Covid violation fines

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

And the sign said anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight
So I jumped on the fence and-a yelled at the house, "Hey! What gives you the right?"

The Daily Post is leading the way on reporting what SM County Manager Mike Callagy said Wednesday about businesses getting fined for not filing plans with the county or posting signs about social distancing or wearing masks.  He said he "didn't have the exact number of tickets that have been handed out but 747 complaints have come into the county about businesses.  The county's Board of Supervisors on Aug. 4 approved a set of Covid-related fines for businesses, ranging from $250 to $3,000.  He said of the complaints, 24% are from San Mateo, 16% from Redwood City and 10% in Burlingame.  The businesses commonly cited are gyms and "tend to operate at night".

Pretty amazing since long time B'gamers are aware of another business that "tends to operate at night" and yet seldom gets cited.  Some of these businesses are on the Bayfront and others on the side streets of B'way.  We are leading the way here though since San Mateo is 3 1/2 times our size but only has 2 1/2 times as many complaints.  OK.  Now I'll retract my tongue from my cheek and suggest a) this may not be the best way to go about it, b) does anyone really need a sign to know about wearing a mask and c) can we just leave the gyms to exercise good judgement as the main purveyors of good health in town?

 

BPD Use of Force Townhall: A Summary

Last night's Zoom Townhall on the Police Department's "Use of Force" policies, its track record and its responses to residents' concerns was somewhat enlightening.  But not in the way you might have expected.  If you were expecting to learn that this is an actual problem in B'game and that major changes are needed, you were disappointed.  It's not and they aren't.  But if you wanted to see how much some people need to learn about how the City is organized, how it operates, or how it interoperates with the County and other entities then this was the place to be.

First, what has been the extent of Use of Force in B'game?  Chief Mike Matteucci saved the statistics until near the end.  I was writing as fast as I could but missed a couple of numbers that I will add when the recording becomes available.  From 2016 to present there have been 2,643 arrests in B'game.  I missed the 2019 figure for uses of force, but all the other years totaled 35 and I believe all but 3 were "empty handed" use of force.  Tasers accounted for 3 in five years, if I heard right.  Hospitalizations totaled....zero, except for a few officers.  After the Chief noted that BPD policy doesn't allow choke holds and now "carotid holds" are newly off the table, the elephant in the room is how exactly empty-hand force will work?  Only my first two questions in the post below were addressed, but I am really anxious to get the answer to the fourth question.  I wrestled in high school and a bit in college.  I know what a challenge it is to just get a guy down on a mat who weighs exactly the same as me; with both of us wearing tights and a referee to prevent eye-gouging, head slaps, etc.  It ain't easy.

The Q&A took up about an hour of the 90 minutes.  Attendees were informed that the City doesn't have mental health professionals (it's a County function and BPD works with them if they have advance notice), the Taser policy is one-time-only except in rare cases where a second might be needed, and MOST IMPORTANTLY that there is NO SUCH THING as routine call or routine stop.  City manager Lisa Goldman's shining moment in an overall excellent performance last night was when she pushed back completely on the idea of some officers going unarmed.  Thinly-veiled, leading questions about the use of a private company (Lexipol) for legal updates, officer "impunity" (it's qualified immunity), and the police unions were deftly handled by the Chief and the City attorney Kathleen Kane. 

There was more on the education front and I'll link to the recording when it comes out.  This webinar was billed as the first step with more to come, but I really don't see why we should bother.  Maybe provide written or video'ed answers to the rest of questions in the hopper and let staff get back to work.  I took this photo during the Avenue shut-down for potential rioting and I like its nuanced message.

Arson at the Library, War Zone on the Ave.

Just as things were reverting to a highly-modified normal (an oxymoron if ever there was one) we get hit with the triple whammy of an arson event at the main library and a warning from BPD to shop owners to take necessary precautions against vandalism and looting.  Then a two-night county-wide curfew went into effect.  When the Ring Neighborhood alert came in yesterday about a fire in the 400 block of Primrose, I got worried.  Fortunately, as you see below, the fire appears to be just umbrellas in front of the library, not the library itself.  BPD made an arrest of a 45 year old, white male and I'm sure there will be more information to follow.

The scene on the Avenue is really disappointing.  Many shops were just reopening or announced that they will in the coming week.  The precautionary boarding up of windows certainly won't induce people to return soon and the restaurants that have been barely eking by on take-out will have to absorb even more stress.  Anyone who thinks this will somehow cure what ails our society is mistaken.

Crime Update - 5 Year Trends

I had a chance to sit down with Chief Mike Matteucci and Lt. Jay Kiely for an update on police affairs.  I would say that I was meeting with the "new" chief after Chief Wollman, but Chief Matteucci's been in the position for a year already.  Time flies but the Chief move up through the ranks here in town and it appeared to be an easy transition .  Voice readers will recall a three-part series I did five years ago on various department initiatives including the Quality of Life team, the actions to reduce property crimes and technology initiatives.  During our discussion, it was clear that many of the initiatives have come to successful conclusion or are continuing to progress.  The most notable shift in the crime figures came in Vehicle Burglaries (i.e. of locked vehicles) which jumped near the end of the year especially downtown.  BPD has some on-going tactics to fight this trend that I won't go into here.  Here are the monthly averages:

Monthly Average                    2015    2016    2017    2018    2019

Residential Burglaries                5        5        2            3        3

Vehicle Burglaries                    22       23    25        21       39

Commercial Burglaries                8        9        4            5        4

Other Thefts                              56        60      51        56      61

Robberies                                   1        1        1            1        2

Stolen Vehicles                          10        9        6          4         6

Vandalism                                  14       13    13          11       12

 

"Other Thefts" include porch pirate package thefts, shoplifting and stealing items out of unlocked cars.  B'game averaged 127 crimes per month in these seven categories last year.  Having now subscribed to the daily email crime summary for several months, I can also say there are a semi-regular occurrences of other, more serious crimes like assault and sexual assault.  Fraud, scams and DUIs are also represented on a monthly basis.

As the city's population grows with all of the building taking place we should expect to grow the police department budget as well.  It may not have to grow linearly with population, but it will have to grow.                                                           

Crime Doesn't Take a Holiday

Happy New Year?  I've been getting the daily email from our centralized crime mapping tool that the City has enabled on its website.  It can be eye-opening some days and I would encourage you to subscribe at least for a couple of weeks to get a sense of what is happening on an on-going basis in town.  You can go here:  https://brm.crimegraphics.com/2013/default.aspx  and look on the lower left side to sign-up.  Here is the crime report for the first three days of 2020 courtesy

Case #	Date of Crime	Date Reported	Crime Type	Crime	Classification	Location	Map
19-4074	12/19/2019 20:28-20:28	12/19/2019 20:28	Assault	Battery On Person	Misdemeanor	1400 Block of OLD BAYSHORE BL, Burlingame	(View)
20-10	1/1/2020 21:30-08:30	1/2/2020 08:32	Burglary	Burglary:second Degree	Felony	3100 Block of FRONTERA WY, Burlingame	(View)
20-11	1/2/2020 08:45-09:57	1/2/2020 09:57	Burglary	Burglary:first Degree	Felony	1400 Block of BALBOA AV, Burlingame	(View)
20-13	12/23/2019 14:12-11:52	1/2/2020 11:52	Stolen Vehicle	Vehicle Theft	Felony	1400 Block of ROLLINS RD, Burlingame	(View)
20-14	1/1/2020 19:00-12:00	1/2/2020 12:34	Attempted Burglary	Attempted Burglary	Felony	800 Block of WALNUT AV, Burlingame	(View)
20-23	1/3/2020 13:47-13:47	1/3/2020 13:47	Warrant	Outside Warrant Arrest Misdemeanor	Misdemeanor	1400 Block of BURLINGAME AV, Burlingame	(View)
20-24	12/25/2019	1/3/2020 15:41	Assault	Attempted Sexual Battery-Misd	Misdemeanor	1500 Block of NEWLANDS AV, Burlingame	(View)
20-28	1/3/2020 19:30-21:30	1/3/2020 21:30	Burglary	Burglary:second Degree	Felony	HOWARD AV/HIGHLAND AV, Burlingame	(View)
20-37	1/5/2020 01:23-01:23	1/5/2020 01:23	DUI Driving	Driving Under Infl Alcohol	Misdemeanor	CALIFORNIA DR/HOWARD AV, Burlingame	(View)
20-38	1/5/2020 04:31-04:31	1/5/2020 04:31	Assault	Battery W/Serious Injury Felony	Felony	1400 Block of HOWARD AV, Burlingame	(View)

Apple Heists: What is to be done?

Almost exactly a year ago, we posted about the Apple store heists getting out of control.  There were some unarmed sort-of-security guards standing around outside on the Avenue for awhile, but that mostly ceased about six months ago and was a for-show-only response anyway.  As the local multi-person, grab and go thefts continue, other merchants on the Avenue are growing concerned as are many local residents.  It seems like just a matter of time before someone gets hurt--most likely not in the store itself, but on the street as the getaway car or cars zoom off down the Avenue.  BPD has placed a decoy cruiser outside on occasion and I would guess some patrol has been upped, but it seems incumbent on Apple to do more.  Here's the decoy in place a couple nights ago.

Pipe Bomb at Rollins Rd. USPS

In the spirit of covering all things Burlingame, I'll just note that we made the national news yesterday when the Postal Service located a pipe bomb in the mail addressed to activist Tom Steyer.  The mail sorting facility on Rollins Rd. went into shutdown and this message went out at 11:50 am

Burlingame Police responded to assist the FBI on a report of a suspicious package located at our mail facility on Rollins Rd. The package is consistent with the mailings throughout the nation. The package has been removed from that facility and the area has been rendered safe. This incident poses no danger to the community of Burlingame.

Later in the day, a guy with a long criminal record was arrested in Florida and accused of being the perp who mailed about a dozen such packages.  If you want the full details, the Daily Journal has it here.

 

Apple Heists Continue

At some point one needs to ask if it is safe to enter an Apple store.  I had a chat with a knowledgeable person last night that would indicate Apple has not yet taken a very good approach to securing their stores.  It sounds like they are making an attempt but in their opinion it's not the best way (or ways) to go about it.