{"id":226215,"date":"2026-03-19T01:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226215\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T01:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:35:11","slug":"berkeley-police-department-walks-back-plans-to-weaken-use-of-force-policy-crime-and-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226215\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkeley Police Department walks back plans to weaken use-of-force policy | Crime and Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Berkeley Police Department halted\u00a0implementation of its revised use-of-force policy Monday. This comes after the Police Accountability Board\u00a0issued<\/a> a letter last week urging the City Council to intervene, as the revisions would undermine guardrails in the previously approved 2020 use-of-force policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The decision was announced in a joint statement released Monday night. It noted that the revision has been paused while the City Attorney\u2019s Office determines the steps needed to update the policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Office of the Director for Police Accountability and BPD did not offer additional comment. Berkeley City Manager Paul Buddenhagen did not respond to requests for comment as of press time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2020 policy was developed in response to nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd and marked a significant shift in Berkeley\u2019s approach to policing.\u00a0The policy emphasized de-escalation, required officers to use reasonable alternatives before deploying force and established a stricter standard for when it can be used.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The revised policy would have rolled back several of these constraints and introduced more flexible regulations for officers. One significant change is the weakening of the language surrounding when force can be used.\u00a0It also reframes de-escalation from a requirement to a recommendation in certain situations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the City Council exercises that authority and directs BPD to implement specific policy, BPD cannot simply ignore or reverse that decision a few years later,\u201d said PAB Chair Joshua Cayetano in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Typically, the BPD does not need the City Council\u2019s approval to alter policies, but this specific policy was formally voted on by the council, according to Cayetano. BPD cannot change legislated policies implemented by the council.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The revised policy was initially presented to the PAB in December 2025. In early March, the board was informed by email that the revised policy was being implemented, prompting it to issue a letter demanding that the council halt its enactment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe revised policy was not implemented because the PAB was vigilant and requested an intervention,\u201d Cayetano said in an email. \u201cGoing forward, I will be recommending a resolution that asks the City Council to implement structural changes to make sure that it cannot happen again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Berkeley Police Department halted\u00a0implementation of its revised use-of-force policy Monday. This comes after the Police Accountability Board\u00a0issued…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7872,1610,14796,28551,143,145,144,102613,7985],"class_list":["post-226215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-berkeley-police-department","tag-city-council","tag-george-floyd","tag-joshua-cayetano","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-office-of-the-director-of-police-accountability","tag-police-accountability-board"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}