Berkeley police annual report: Violent crime rose 15% in 2023
Crime levels are "returning to or surpassing pre-pandemic levels," with increases across nearly all major violent and property crimes, BPD said.
Serious crime was up 10.5% in Berkeley in 2023, driven largely by increases in robbery and auto theft, BPD reported to the City Council last week.
Berkeley's annual crime report takes place each March and offers a look at significant crime trends as well as projects underway in the Berkeley Police Department.
BPD said crime levels were "returning to or surpassing pre-pandemic levels," with increases across nearly all major violent and property crime categories that are tracked annually.
Those increases are "part of a trend in the East Bay," Berkeley police said, with similar increases in preliminary data from Oakland and Richmond.
Violent crime saw a 15% increase in Berkeley last year, with sex crimes and robbery both rising.
Pedestrian robberies and carjackings were both up significantly in Berkeley last year.
Armed robberies saw a five-year high, with 29% of Berkeley robberies involving a gun last year.
Property crime was up about 10%, with burglary, auto theft and arson all increasing.
Exceptions were homicides, down from 3 in 2022 to 1 in 2023, and larceny, which dropped slightly. Serious assaults were flat.
BPD also noted that injury and non-injury shootings were down in 2023 when compared to spikes in 2021 and 2022, but still remain "substantially higher" than in other recent years.
Hate crimes on the rise in Berkeley
Berkeley also saw an increase in hate crimes in 2023: up to 46 last year from 38 in 2022, with antisemitic hate crimes in particular having become more common since Oct. 7.
BPD said there were 10 antisemitic hate crimes in 2023: five in the nine months before Oct. 7 and five in the nearly three months afterward.
There were two anti-Arab hate crimes reported in all of 2023, BPD said.
As for hate incidents — which don't rise to the level of a crime — there were 18 last year that were linked to antisemitism (including 13 after Oct. 7) and four that were classified as anti-Arab or anti-Muslim (with none after Oct. 7), BPD said.
Other highlights from Berkeley's 2023 crime report
- Berkeley 911 calls were at their highest level in five years, with around 14,100 in 2023
- Officer-initiated calls were at a five-year low, from a high of more than 20,000 in 2019 to around 15,000 last year
- Berkeley had about 64,000 calls for service in total
- Gun recoveries were at a five-year low, with 69 guns seized in 2023 compared to 119 the prior year
- BPD staffing remained at a historic low, with 153 sworn officers on the force (but closer to 127 available for full, solo duty)
- BPD officers are spending more time on each call and handling more calls per shift
- The median response time for the most serious BPD calls was 7 minutes ("meeting regional standards")
- BPD said its crime clearance rates are "tracking similarly" to other cities "for the most part"
- BPD said its analysis of department data found no systemic bias in officer-initiated car stops or searches during police stops, with "yield rates" during searches similar across racial groups
- BPD said uses of force were also similar across racial groups when using arrests as a baseline
- There were seven internal and Police Accountability Board investigations into BPD uses of force in 2023, none of which found misconduct, BPD said
Emilie Raguso
More resources on BPD crime stats
- Read BPD's 2023 crime report
- See more highlights from the crime report in BPD's presentation from last week
- Watch the full recording from the March 12 special meeting (at 4 p.m.)
- Read UCPD's annual report for 2023
Editor's note on Berkeley crime data
Emilie Raguso
The Scanner published a rundown of 2023 Berkeley crime trends in January, which found many similar highlights as those reported last week.
The exact numbers may be different for a couple of key reasons.
- For tracking day-to-day and historic crime tallies, The Scanner uses BPD's Transparency Hub data portal, which calculates numbers slightly differently than federal reporting standards
- Unlike BPD data, The Scanner's comprehensive Berkeley gunfire map includes freeway shootings reported to the CHP and gunfire on UCPD property, leading to slight differences from BPD totals
Emilie Raguso
Other major public safety stories in Berkeley in 2023
- UCPD launched an investigation into a skeleton discovered at Clark Kerr
- TBS published an exclusive report on a Berkeley bike cop fired for misconduct
- Berkeley finally got a permanent police chief
- Berkeley pledged to update its dispatch center
- Council approved license plate readers and fixed surveillance cameras for cops (although only one has been installed so far)
- Berkeley PD embarked on a staffing analysis (with results expected in May)
- A non-police crisis team, the Specialized Care Unit, hit the streets
- Berkeley marked the one-year anniversary of two brothers from Berkeley High who were killed at a friend's birthday party
Read more about policing, crime trends and deep dives on The Berkeley Scanner.
