San Mateo police implement new policy initiatives

Barberini updated the City Council on the department’s data transparency effort to the public, mental health crisis program and other policies and initiatives at a meeting Jan. 18. The public has demanded more police accountability and transparency over the past two years nationwide and locally due to high-profile shooting and use-of-force cases nationwide. The council last year prioritized police accountability and transparency and expanded mental health and social services as one of its strategic objectives. Barberini, who became chief in 2019 after holding the same position in San Bruno, said he and his staff support implementing new initiatives. Barberini stressed he wanted to be open and transparent with everyone.

“I think folks here understand the direction that I’d like to go in. They view it as a positive direction, so I think it’s all worked out in a very positive way,” Barberini said.

San Mateo is working with San Mateo County on its community wellness and crisis response team that responds to mental health issues. The group in San Mateo has a mental health clinician from the county embedded into various operations and police responses to help with mental health crises. In December, the county launched the pilot program in San Mateo, Redwood City, South San Francisco and Daly City. There have been 52 calls for service in San Mateo so far, with 24 for welfare checks, eight for homeless-related services, six for disturbance calls and four for suspicious people. Other calls have been for assaults and suicidal calls. Barberini said having the program and clinician has helped officers and the public improve safety.

“I think it makes us a better department and makes our staff better prepared to serve everyone in the community,” he said.

The program could evolve in the future, with mental health crisis workers potentially interacting with the community on their own.

“We are learning as we go with this,” Barberini said.

Officers now must complete an eight-week mindfulness training and courses on understanding Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The mindfulness program focuses on skill building to better prepare police officers for the situations and stressors faced in the field. Training topics include resilience, recognizing stress, regulating unhelpful thinking, trusting training and dealing with physical and emotional pain. San Mateo police have also started a youth therapy canine program to help young people suffering from trauma or who went through a traumatic experience. Its drone program now monitors large events, keeps track of perimeters that once required several officers, re-creates crime scenes, and finds suspects or missing people. A policy of having video cameras in police cars will start in March after supply chain delay issues due to a vendor.

San Mateo’s license plate reader camera program is helping solve cases daily and improving staff time efficiency, helping in 130 cases this year. Investigators recently used the program to find information that led to the arrest of two people in a recent San Mateo murder. Police had little to go on until camera information provided a breakthrough. In response to public concerns about privacy, Barberini said camera use is closely monitored to ensure it is used for the intended purpose of investigating criminal acts.

“Having that one small piece of information provided us with a starting point that we otherwise wouldn’t have had, and it was a crucial piece in building momentum in investigating that case,” Barberini said.

San Mateo has also launched its data transparency website. The real-time information dashboard explores crime mapping, policing data, traffic collisions and department policies. Information includes types of arrest, police reports, calls, officer demographic information, complaints and other pertinent information. Data from January 2020 to September 2021 found the top three arrests are for disorderly conduct due to alcohol, DUI and possession of a controlled substance. The top three calls to police are for mental health evaluations, burglary and vehicle theft.

Councilmember Amourence Lee encouraged the police department to analyze data from several years to identify trends and create meaningful policy directives. Barberini said the department had the ability to examine and compare two years of data for trends in a couple of weeks. Data collection started in January 2020. Lee also wanted public data on officers and staff who live in San Mateo and San Mateo County versus outside it.

“I think that’s an important story to tell. The impact of the housing crisis and how challenging it is to recruit and retain our officers and employees that live in this community and can stay in this community,” Lee said.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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