Full Notification

To our Berkeley Community:
 
By now you may have seen the full video of George Floyd being restrained, and ultimately killed, by an officer of the Minneapolis Police Department, while other officers stood by. Our community, including our Police Department and our law enforcement profession, is again challenged by a visible, inexplicable, inexcusable death of a community member at the hands of police officers sworn to protect him. That he was an African American makes this more painful in light of our nation’s struggle to address issues of race and just policing. This incident understandably inflames national and local concerns around police, community trust, and racial injustice, amidst an unprecedented time of societal stress during the pandemic and great economic crisis.
 
What we all saw—the officer pressing his knee onto Mr. Floyd’s neck—is completely at odds with our—your—police department’s mission, vision and values, BPD’s training and tactics, and the professionalism with which our officers serve, every day they come to work.
 
Through all these challenges, I hope you will take some heart in knowing that at BPD we train and use tactics intended to reduce harms; we respond to pleas for help, and our officers support each other through teamwork, including intervention, rather than letting a fellow officer act wrongly. Our training, tactics and policies reflect in great measure our community’s values, and this makes our department strong, and I hope bolsters the community’s trust in what we do…
 
I am proud of the work our officers do every day. I value their service, courage and dedication. Seeing far-away officers’ actions (and inaction) undermine our department’s collective efforts to build and maintain community trust here in Berkeley, is extremely frustrating for all of us here at BPD… but I am confident the way forward is for our officers to continue doing the good work they do, staying mindful and focused on the fact that what they do makes a positive difference in our community members’ lives and safety every day.
 
Yours in service,
 
Andrew Greenwood
Chief of Police
Berkeley Police Department
(510) 981-5700