Public Records Act

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra informed the Investigative Reporting Program, or IRP, of possible legal action in a Jan. 29 letter, after its reporters had gained access to a database of police officers’ arrests and convictions through a Public Record Act request, or PRA, as first reported by The Mercury News.

In 2014, Berkeley’s Police Review Commission found that one officer involved in the 2013 in-custody death of Kayla Moore exercised improper police procedure. But documents recently obtained by The Daily Californian through a Public Records Act request show that a judge disagreed with the commission’s findings months later, calling its logic “fallacious.”

The bill would add specific records regarding complaints involving officers to the list of records accessible through a California Public Records Act request.

On March 20, 2014 — six weeks after Cal football player Ted Agu dropped dead on a campus hillside in the early morning — Berkeley campus police Chief Margo Bennett emailed John Wilton, then the vice chancellor for administration and finance, with the warning not to share with others “the documents I gave you yesterday. … The case is not available for a PRA request and I’d like to keep it that way.”

Nikishna Polequaptewa, a former student affairs officer at UC Irvine, was dismissed in March 2014 for violating the UC Policy on Sexual Harassment. Polequaptewa’s is at least the 132nd case of sexual misconduct by UC employees since October 2010.

Documents obtained by The Daily Californian through a Public Records Act request reveal that noise complaints and underage drinking citations issued by Berkeley Police Department over the last year were most densely distributed in the city’s Southside area.

Journalist and freelance author Irvin Muchnick filed a lawsuit against the UC Board of Regents on Tuesday, demanding that the regents comply with his request through the California Public Records Act for all documents regarding the death of former Cal football player Ted Agu.

UCPD operates an almost $22 million budget, with financial results indicating a 48 percent increase in total expenses, matching a 44 percent increase in total funding, from fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2016.

Those in need of a job can look at several position openings within the city of Berkeley, such as animal services assistant, assistant city clerk and landscape gardener.

After more than six years as the chief of Berkeley Police Department, Michael Meehan is under serious scrutiny from his officers, with recently published emails detailing the extent of the department’s frustration.