Here is Chief Andrew Binder's quarterly update (which you can also read on the City's Medium site here):

I hope you are drying out from this winter’s wet weather and are looking forward to the spring season. In this community update, I will discuss the return of our popular “Breaking With the Law” community events, a recent neighborhood town hall meeting I had the pleasure of attending, City Council approval of automated license plate recognition technology, and the forthcoming release of our Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) data from 2022.

“Breaking With the Law” is back

Our popular “Breaking With the Law” events returned last month, with Coupa Café on Ramona Street hosting us for the first post-pandemic session of these informal community meetings. We had a great time connecting with residents, and I enjoyed the many conversations I had with attendees. “Breaking With the Law” is a program we established several years ago as our version of the “Coffee with the Cops” program that other police agencies host. These events are a great way for you to get to know our personnel in a casual setting. There’s no formal program and no presentation — just an opportunity to drop in, meet us, ask any questions, or express any concerns. At last month’s event, we had representatives from our many divisions and tried to showcase the diversity of our job assignments — from patrol officers, detectives, public safety dispatchers, police records specialists, animal control officers, to members of our command staff. We also had a police vehicle there for the kids to check out.

We are currently planning our next “Breaking With the Law” event, which will be scheduled in late April or early May. It will likely be hosted somewhere in south Palo Alto this time. Our intent is visit different areas of town, at different types of businesses (not everyone is a coffee-drinker, after all), and on different days of the week and varying times of day. Our goal is to provide the opportunity for as many community members as possible to make one of these fun events. To learn about upcoming events once they’re scheduled, be sure to follow us on social media or Nixle.

Neighborhood Town Hall meetings continue

Also last month, I participated in the most recent Neighborhood Town Hall meeting organized by the City Manager’s Office in conjunction with the City Council and Palo Alto Neighborhoods leadership and neighborhood leaders. This particular meeting was for the neighborhoods of Greenmeadow, Greendell, Walnut Grove, Fairmeadow, Charleston Meadow, Charleston Garden, Charleston Village, Adobe Meadow, Meadow Park, and Greenhouse. I spoke about common crimes in Palo Alto, provided safety tips, and answered questions. I enjoy these opportunities to meet residents, hear what’s on people’s minds, and share a little about the good work that our personnel are doing in the community. If you’d like to watch a recording of the meeting, you can view it on the City’s YouTube channel here (and while the entire meeting is worthy of your time, my comments begin at the 50:36 mark).

More Neighborhood Town Hall meetings will be scheduled as we move through the year, and I hope to see you at the one for your neighborhood. To learn about upcoming meetings once they’re scheduled, the previous meetings and meeting flyers and more, go to www.cityofpaloalto.org/engage.

Implementation of automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology

On April 3, the Palo Alto City Council approved the Police Department’s use of automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology by supporting the approval of a contract with Flock Safety to install ALPR cameras at 20 strategically-selected locations around town. Council also approved a surveillance use policy to govern our use of the technology in compliance with the Palo Alto Municipal Code. The camera locations will be selected based on several factors, to include crime statistics, common vehicular ingress and egress points, and traffic volume. The Police Department has no intention of installing ALPR cameras permanently in residential neighborhoods. I’d encourage you to read the staff report we prepared for the meeting and check out our ALPR web page for more information about our use of this technology, including all the steps we took proactively to address concerns surrounding data retention limits and data sharing.

I strongly believe our use of this technology will directly enhance community safety, just like it has in the many other cities near us that already employ ALPR (for example, Menlo Park, Atherton, Los Altos Hills, Saratoga, Campbell, San Jose, Los Gatos, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Milpitas, and Santa Clara). Not only will it have a deterrent effect on crime, but it will give our personnel valuable investigative leads to solve cases.

Forthcoming Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) data release

The Palo Alto Police Department believes in fair and impartial policing, free from discrimination or bias. We are committed to providing outstanding service while respecting the racial, cultural, and other differences of those we serve in our diverse community. The Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) increases law enforcement access to more statistical information about detentions and searches than ever before, and I am committed to share this data directly with the community.

RIPA requires all California law enforcement agencies to collect specific information on certain types of police contacts (detentions, and contacts during which a person is searched). The Palo Alto Police Department’s legal obligation to collect and submit this data to the California Department of Justice began with calendar year 2022. As I shared in my last quarterly update, the California Department of Justice will be releasing their first statewide report of RIPA data for agencies our size later this year. Though that report will include generalized statewide information and trends and not Palo Alto-specific data, I am committed to providing PAPD-specific data directly to our community. On March 28, 2023, the Department submitted our 2022 data to the California Department of Justice and is now awaiting receipt of the processed and validated data set back from them. Once we receive the data set from the California Department of Justice (anticipated by May 1), we will post that data on our new RIPA website at www.cityofpaloalto.org/PAPDripa. The data will be available for public review in two ways: 1) the raw data will be available for download by community members, and 2) an interactive RIPA data dashboard will display that same data by applying user-defined filters.

The interpretation and analysis of RIPA data is complex and nuanced. To assist with reviewing and developing findings of the Department’s 2022 RIPA data, the Police Department is working with the City Manager’s Office to identify an independent, third-party qualified data analyst to review the Department’s data and publish a written report with their findings. City staff anticipate retaining an analyst soon, with their written report forthcoming by the end of 2023. We will publish that report on our RIPA website.

In closing…review crime prevention tips and report suspicious behavior

We have several pages of crime prevention tips available on our website at www.cityofpaloalto.org/StopCrime. There are sections on personal safety, home and vehicle safety, common scams, child safety, how to report suspicious behavior to us, how to be a good witness, and what to do if you become a victim of crime. Please take the time to review these tips, and please help our community by being extra sets of eyes and ears for the police. We’re only a phone call away — 9–1–1 for emergencies, or (650) 329–2413 for our 24-hour dispatch center.

Do you have a question or are you interested in sharing your perspective with me? Please send me a note at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.

- Andrew

Ways to connect and stay informed with PAPD:

• We are the only municipal police agency in Santa Clara County with an unencrypted radio frequency, which gives you real-time access to police radio transmissions.
• Read our news releases about significant events in town
• Obtain critical public safety information in a timely way via Nextdoor, Twitter, and Nixle
• Check our interactive calls for service map
• Access our Police Report Log
• Examine the data and policing statistical information we release as part of the Police Data Initiative