The Burlingame Voice

Crime Stats: 2024 trended in the right direction

B'game PD collates the crime year-in-review annually and we bring it to you with historical context in an easily consumed format.  Last year's post highlighted the decline in catalytic converter theft; a trend that continued in 2024 almost to the point of vanishing.  It just goes to show that when you go after the buyers, the sellers have nowhere to sell.  Vehicle burglaries also declined a lot and a new category--Organized Retail Theft--was blessedly low.

The big news of last year and this month was the two shootings--one fatal and the other luckily not fatal at the H'borough Police station.  Let's hope that trend does not continue to the point where we need to add a category.  The attempted abduction that was foiled by two Good Samaritans and quick police work gave us all pause but verified that license plate readers are valuable.  Chief Matteucci retired late last year after 33 years on the force and he one guy who is able to say that he "went out on a low note"--one of the few jobs where that is a good thing!  Here are the stats for 2024 and a photo of the retirement.

Monthly Average                 2020     2021     2022     2023    2024

Residential Burglaries             2         2         3             2        1

Vehicle Burglaries                 20       25        24           23        13

Thefts from Unlocked Vehicles 14     8          5             6        4

Commercial Burglaries           6         5          5            4        2

Construction site theft           1         1         1             2        <1

Package thefts                       4         2         2             4        3

Catalytic Converter Theft       6         9        11            4        <1

Robberies                              2         2         1             1        <1

Stolen Vehicles                      9         7         8             8         6

Vandalism                             13     13         13           11        11

Organized Retail Theft                                                        <1

 

Hillsborough Shooting: Still at large

I knew something was up yesterday just after 4pm as a helicopter made its fourth circular pass over my house.  There had been some sirens as well and there were many more to follow as police cruisers raced up ECR for the next hour or more.  Around 7:30 I spotted a Mountain View cruiser parked in from of St. Catherine's lying in wait.  The SF Chronicle is reporting

Hillsborough police continued to search Sunday for an assailant they say ambushed and shot an officer in the police department’s rear parking lot Saturday afternoon before fleeing on foot.  The violent incident occurred at 3:49 p.m. Saturday, when an “unknown individual” began firing and struck the officer in the lot at 1600 Floribunda Ave., near Hillsborough Town Hall. The officer returned fire as the assailant took off. Police did not know whether the assailant had been hit.

Paramedics transported the wounded officer — who has not been identified — to San Francisco General Hospital as law enforcement began searching the area and “pursuing active leads'” to make an arrest, according to statements from the police department Saturday night.

That sounds far from random to me and is probably the basis for the "active leads" bit.  I was also reminded of the snafus around the tsunami warnings last December noted here.  Why?  Because the SMC Alert to shelter in place didn't arrive until 9:54pm!  What's up with that?  I checked X, but BPD hasn't posted anything to its account there since August of 2023.

Not wanting to drop into the rabbit holes that are Facebook and Nextdoor, I just kept listening to the chopper, and later a fixed wing plane, circle until well after dark.  I doubt you can see much looking for someone on foot in a neighborhood at 8pm from an airplane.  This makes two shooting in three months (see here), so we really have to get the public alert systems synchronized and operating in a timely fashion.  More to follow.

Update:  An eagle-eyed reader provided this flight view of the Cessna 206 that circled endlessly.  The helicopter is not shown.

BPD shooting: First in a long time

Oddly enough I was talking to a retired BPD chief last month about the last time a BPD officer had to draw their gun, never mind discharge it.  We seemed to recall it had been much more than a decade.  Even the Wells Fargo robbery and murder on the Ave. may not have caused a weapon to be drawn as the robbers were quick.  That streak came to an end on Saturday as the Comicle is reporting: 

Around 2:53 a.m., officers responded to a 911 call reporting possible gunshots on the 800 block of North San Mateo Drive, according to the San Mateo Police Department. Officers found a man walking near the intersection of Jefferson Court and State Street. He pointed a firearm at the officers, causing them to move out of the line of fire, and then ran north on Jefferson Court, police said. 

The officers, “fearing for their lives,” requested additional police units before chasing after the man, but they lost sight of him, police said. A Burlingame police officer located him a quarter-mile away, near the intersection of Bayswater Avenue and Myrtle Road, where he was holding a gun and standing in the middle of the roadway, police said.  Officers said they tried to deescalate the situation by giving the man verbal commands and discharged a rubber projectile to prompt him to drop his firearm, but he did not comply. At 4 a.m., one San Mateo officer and one Burlingame officer shot and struck the man, causing him to fall to the ground, police said.

The man was reported to be in stable condition after the hour-long engagement.  The usual follow-up:  administrative leave for the two officers and investigations by BPD, SMPB and the DA will eventually tell us the rest of the story including the part that gets glossed over--the original "possible gunshots".

Badges! Badges! We need stinkin' badges!

The sheriff Corpus soap opera continues apace with near daily updates since the last post 10 days ago.  Much of the drip, drip is due to reporters, editors and columnists sifting through the 400-page report from the retired judge than led to the county Supes moves against the sheriff.  The Daily Post is on the case again today with a photo of Chief of Staff Victor Aenlle wearing a badge that looks just like a deputy's badge.  The article states that he is "likely committing a crime by impersonating a police officer".  But wait, there's more.  Aenlle had other badges made up and was passing them out to friends and colleagues at a local non-profit.  Hence the Daily Post headline "Anyone want a sheriff's badge".  Blazing Saddles and The Treasure of Sierra Madre had it right after all.

I had heard from a couple sources that Aenlle is a Burlingamer, but had not made any effort to verify it.  The Post just did the legwork for me by citing his B'gamer status in today's piece.  The second article on changing the code on a rifle storage locker continues the drip, drip as does editor Dave Price's column about trusting sheriff's departments.  I don't see this drip dripping until a March special election.

Soap Opera at the Sheriff's Office

Some soap operas air weekly, but the one down at the Sheriff's office is running daily at this point and is it ever well-written--if you like soap operas.  Personally, I don't.  Especially when it involves the operation of the largest and perhaps most critical department in the County.  I have had reservations about Sheriff Corpus' management skills from the get-go--two and a half years ago as noted here.  The Daily Post has led the way tracking Corpus' leadership as noted here and in the subsequent comments.  The Daily Journal has focused in on the "chaos" lately here and here as has the SF Chronicle on the front page here.

As various reporters dig into the 400-page investigative report by the retired judge the Supes hired, more details are revealed that caused the Supes to unanimously ask for Corpus' resignation and to abolish her chief of staff's position; right before she showed up at the meeting and promoted him to Assistant Sheriff live during public comment.  As Mark Simon noted in his DJ column opener in the print edition: "It appears that getting rid of a sheriff is going to be a lot more difficult than electing one."  The on-line version relies on poet Dylan Thomas' verse.  There is plenty of nitty-gritty in the column for a civics lesson on the legal wranglings ahead.

One thing that hasn't been noted in the reporting is Corpus' compensation.  Per transparentcalifornia.com, her total pay is $466K per year plus benefits that take total comp to $701K per year.  That is a 42% bump from getting elected sheriff (verses her captain's comp running the Millbrae force that the sheriff's office contracts).  The step up in responsibility and visibility was much higher--as she is now finding out.  With one senior person who was vocal about some of the problems under arrest and two, or is it three, recent resignations, one could question how the ship is being steered at the moment.  It all goes to a key point that a very smart B'game city councilor made years ago when we were considering merging BPD with the San Mateo PD to save money.  She was vehemently opposed to giving up local control and managed to convince the other councilors---a big win for B'game.  It also avoids this mess.

 

ECR: How is this maneuver legal?

Change is afoot for our beloved El Camino Real as the Axe man cometh for the Eucs.  The city e-newsletter notes that pothole repair on a systemic level (as opposed to when someone calls) as "Caltrans is currently completing pothole repair work on El Camino Real, between Howard Avenue and Sanchez Avenue. Work will take place daily, between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. One lane will remain open in both directions, but drivers should expect delays."

One thing that will have to change as 91% of the Eucs get cut down, huge swaths of pavement get dug up at one time, trenches get dug for power/phone lines and drainage piping is the commercial parking habits of various truck drivers.  It's not just Amazon, UPS, FedEx, et al.  Check this guy out resupplying Walgreens!  There's a city lot right there, but hey, let's just shut down half of northbound ECR for half an hour or more.  How is that legal?

CARE court in San Mateo County: Not a day too soon

More than a few people have been mentioning the arrival of EssEff-like people with obvious mental health issues in town.  The north B'gamers have a couple in and around El Camino, especially on the narrow westside sidewalk around Sanchez.  Us south B'gamers have a couple as well, but not the same from what I am hearing.  Just in the last month, my neighbors have been talking about one guy who wanders down the street peering under cars and "hiding" behind street trees that are six inches in diameter.  I recently called in a wellness check on a different guy who stood perfectly still on an ECR corner for at least eight hours straight.  If he were in a North Korean prison being made to do that, it would be called torture.  There's nothing compassionate about letting this go on.

The news that the County is moving more quickly than required to implement CARE court is welcome news.  The Merc has a piece as well as the DJ:

The program, Community Assistance, Recover and Empowerment Court, is to be implemented by every county within the state by the end of the year. San Mateo County will begin piloting the program July 1, County Executive Officer Mike Callagy announced Tuesday, as one of the eight counties to implement the pilot program early.

The BPD follow-up to my wellness call was prompt and clear about what can and cannot be done...currently.  If someone is on public property and not creating a disturbance, they can decline assistance and that is the end of it.  One neighbor noted that a person was on private property, but moved before anything could be logged.  BPD suggests people continue to call in checks since sometimes the second or third offer is the one that gets accepted.  Per the Merc article

CARE court allows family members, close friends, first responders (my emphasis), behavioral health providers and others to refer someone to the court.  A judge can then order participants--who receive a public defender and a "CARE supporter" to help them through the process-to enroll in tailored treatment plans, which could include placement in a mental health facility or permanent supportive housing.

The whole thing is going to be A Process and it won't be cheap, but it's not like we have much choice.  Once someone has seen two or three of these incidents in a two-week span, it's hard to disagree.  I'm not sure what the least gratifying part of being a local cop is, but this has to be on the list.

Hookah Hullabaloo on B'way

In the local version of the national trend of avowed lefties becoming ever more authoritarian, smoking stuff on Broadway has come under the microscope at city council.  The Daily Journal headline notes

Burlingame moves to allow hookah

City OKs outdoor smoking ban, moves forward with water pipe exemptions

You would be excused if you thought the sub-head had something to do with our aging water infrastructure, but it doesn't.  Instead, in a state with legalized weed that you can smell all over town, we are treated to council members and high school students opining about hookahs and shisha...sheesh

The Burlingame City Council is prepared to allow hookah in two Burlingame locations, despite some concerns about its nicotine use, and also expanded an outdoor smoking ban for its Burlingame Avenue and Broadway retail districts.  Allowing hookah, however, would mean the city could not participate in San Mateo County’s tobacco regulation program, which covers cities’ costs if an ordinance is adopted. Advocates of the exemption say hookah can be a culturally and socially significant practice that legal adults should not be prohibited from utilizing.

Councilmember Emily Beach said she wished the City Council would remain strong in its decision to ban all flavored tobacco products and thought that participating in the county’s regulation plan would have saved Burlingame taxpayer’s money.  “When I look at flavored tobacco, the big picture is [that] flavored tobacco makes it tastier, more enticing and more fun to smoke. That’s why it was invented, it makes it better,” she said. “Whether that’s adults or kids, is that a good idea? In my opinion, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to go backwards on this.”

The ordinance will also clarify that the ban applies only to the public right of way, like streets, parklets and public parking lots, and not private property like outdoor patios of bars and restaurants, Assistant City Attorney Scott Spansail previously said during the council’s Nov. 6 meeting.

It looks like a 3-2 vote to allow hookahs -- Ortiz, Stevenson and Colson for, Brownrigg and Beach opposed to shisha.  The "cultural and societal value" of lighting up was invoked by some commenters.  I can hear the cries of racism off in the distance if this vote had gone the other way.  If you are thinking of jumping into the hookah business be aware that only one more spot is allowed, and it cannot be too close to the Society Lounge on B'way.

The real question, completely ignored, is how is BPD going to enforce this?  Aside from the area around the Apple store and the occasional parking enforcement officer roaming the streets (who probably cannot issue this sort of ticket anyway) are people supposed to call 911?   Shall we hire a few new foot cops to patrol B'way and the Avenew?

What's up with California school administration?

Thankfully this post is not about Burlingame but given what we read on some of our longest running School posts like this one from October 2022 there may be some learning to be gained by looking at recent events at Pittsburg High School.  The Chronicle had a piece about the PE teacher and football coach at Pittsburg High School that left me with many questions.  First, some details with extra bolding:

When school officials in the East Bay city of Pittsburg were told that a high school football coach had been accused of groping female students, they reprimanded him repeatedly for at least a decade — but allowed him to keep his job after each instance, then to quietly retire. In an agreement on the terms of his departure, the district made a major concession: It promised not to tell prospective employers about the coach’s history.

The complaints about former Pittsburg High School coach Phillip Webb finally surfaced Wednesday after a lawsuit was filed by two of his alleged victims, young women who said he had touched them inappropriately when they were students in 2015 and 2016. Documents obtained by the women’s lawyers show that officials told Webb at least a half dozen times to change his behavior but never punished him.

The state Commission on Teacher Credentialing issued a reproval against Webb this May, but did not revoke the teaching credential he had been issued in 1985. He had taught physical education in addition to coaching football.  That means Webb could still apply to other California school districts to work with youngsters.  The agreement was provided to the Chronicle by Lauren Cerri, an attorney for the two women, who obtained it under the California Public Records Act.

Webb did not address any of the claims in the lawsuit, and said any further questions should be directed to his attorney. He has not been charged with any crimes.

You can read through many of the details on-line as it is a long piece.  But it begs so many questions.  Many incidents were reported by students and other teachers (e.g. 2007, 2013, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2022!). That last one was on a security camera.  How many warnings do principals and superintendents hand out before they do something more?  How transparent with the school community are they--and should they be when it's a "personnel issue"?  Where's the school board oversight?  One of the girls' fathers is quoted and is angry and confused by the apparent inaction, but at what point does a parent call their local police?  We've read a bit about the Commission on Teacher Credentialing here on the Voice.  What exactly does the CTC do?  What sort of investigative resources do they have?  How high is their hurdle?

What's up with the agreement about retirement in three months and the secrecy?  Some of that is certainly personnel record law.  That's where the Chronicle ends the piece

A 2014 law signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown made it easier for schools to fire educators who commit misconduct, but many still choose to allow them to resign or retire in order to avoid potential legal battles. Bills that would forbid schools from entering into secret agreements that keep misconduct hidden from prospective employers have hit a dead end in the California Legislature.

More questions.  How easy is it to fire someone under the nine-year old law?  All sorts of crazy stuff sails through the California Legislature and gets signed by governors, but this hits a dead end?  What's up with that, supermajority?

City Strike? Free speech for all?

The only thing I'm certain about regarding this post is that we do not have the whole story.  Kudos to the Daily Journal for running with what they did know yesterday about the potential strike over "free speech" issues among City employees.  The DJ piece starts with

The union representing 130 Burlingame city workers could strike after complaints allege city managers in various departments are interfering with employees’ rights to free speech.  Rod Palmquist, spokesperson for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 829, said the city workers have a right to free speech and express their desire for better-paying wages.

The bit of background we do have is

The state’s Public Employment Relations Board issued an unfair labor practice complaint against the city Sept. 8. In early June, several employees attended a City Council meeting to speak in favor of fair wages. The next day, an employee at the meeting allegedly asked police Capt. Robert Boll a routine operational question. Boll allegedly said, “Why don’t you ask the AFSCME people.” While speaking to a group of employees who voiced the need for a pay increase, Park Superintendent Richard Holtz allegedly responded that they should talk with him if they didn’t like working for the city for the pay they receive, adding he would help them find another place to work, according to a PERB complaint.

First, one could ask why there is such a thing as a Public Employment Relations Board, who is on it and how much homework do they do before they issue a complaint?  I'd like to know what the "routine operational question" was and whether it was asked in good faith.  As far as the second comment by Rich Holtz, that sounds like him exercising his free speech, not interfering with someone else's.  And it's not like he gets to decide who gets paid what in town.  For me the kicker is this bit

City employee Joleen Helley said the city pays 6% less than neighboring cities doing similar jobs, according to the release.

Blanket statistics like that always concern me.  There are so many variables that boiling a pay comparison down to a single number is impossible.  What about time in grade (seniority), performance reviews, benefit packages and the like?  B'game is in contract negotiations now--did the other cities just finish theirs so raises come at different times?  And the BIg Question is who cares what other cities are paying?  That is a false comparison meant to continue a faster upward spiral than is needed to provide the services.  I recall back in the day, a clerical job opening at City Hall drew more than 200 applicants.  The pay must have been competitive enough.

This is just a place marker post for when we know more--if we ever do.