Police officers from the Berkeley Police Department and UCPD have been patrolling Black Lives Matter protests in other cities around the Bay Area.
UCPD and BPD have been outside of Berkeley as part of California’s mutual aid program, in which police departments from neighboring precincts send additional officers when aid is requested.
When in other precincts, UCPD receives orders from the local police department through its commander in charge, according to UCPD spokesperson Sgt. Nicolas Hernandez. But, the individual policies of UCPD still apply when officers are in other precincts as mutual aid, Hernandez added.
“We have certain things that we do that other agencies may not, and things we don’t do that other precincts may do,” Hernandez said.
UCPD officers have been sent to Oakland and San Francisco during the recent protests, although Hernandez said he could not provide specific information on how many officers had been sent or what their roles were in these areas.
According to BPD spokesperson Officer Byron White, a “relatively small” number of officers — about 24 — were present at protests in Oakland and Emeryville.
White said he could not comment on how many arrests have been made by BPD in other precincts or the circumstances of any arrests.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, or ACSO, is responsible for coordinating all mutual aid between police departments in Alameda County, added White.
The ACSO is also the designated mutual aid coordinator for California’s Region II — stretching from Monterey County to the Oregon border — according to the ACSO’s website.
