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While homicide rates for cities in the Bay Area are dropping, the number of murders in Berkeley was slightly higher this year then the past two years. Numbers are down significantly from 1996 and 1997. 

In 1996, there were eight homicides in Berkeley; in 1997, there were 11; in 1998, there were four, in 1999 there were three and in 2000 there were five. 

Lt. Russell Lopes said none of the homicides in 2000 were drug related, as far as the department has determined. 

Last January a murder on the 1400 block of Oregon Street was a “personal thing” between people who knew each other, Lopes said. The second incident considered a homicide was an officer-involved shooting, ruled “justified” by the district attorney. In a third incident outside a liquor store on the 3400 block of Adeline, a man punched another and that man hit his head on the sidewalk and died. The fourth incident on the 1200 block of Haskell street occurred during a robbery. The fifth incident, which occurred last month, is being investigated as a homicide, but may be ruled otherwise. A man was found lying near the sidewalk near Adeline Street and Martin Luther King, Jr Way, having apparently hit his head on the sidewalk. The coroner’s report has not yet been filed in this case. 

In Oakland, a city recently plagued by a police corruption scandal, homicides have been on the rise in the past year. Oakland logged 79 homicides in 2000, up from 60 the year before.  

San Jose, however, continued its run as one of the safest large cities in the country, with only 17 homicides in 2000, down from 25 in 1999 and almost as low as its record of 13 in 1970. 

San Jose fared better than two cities of comparable size – Las Vegas, which had about 100 homicides and Detroit, which had about 400. 

On average, homicide rates in the Bay area have been on the decline for the past eight years. San Francisco’s numbers were down slightly too, with 61 killings in 2000, compared to 64 the year before. 

City officials in Oakland point out that the city’s overall crime rate, which includes robbery and rape, is down 16 percent from 1999. But some experts say that an increase in homicide numbers over the course of only one year does not necessarily indicate a trend of increased killings. 

Law enforcement officers say high employment rates, a good economy and community policing are responsible for San Francisco’s and San Jose’s low rates. 

But San Jose Police Chief Bill Lansdowne said it has more to do with maintaining a constant police presence on the streets. 

“It’s very comfortable to say the economy is the answer,” he said. “But patrol is even more important.” 

Having police dispersed throughout the city is important to keeping crime down, said San Francisco police officer Michelle Jean. The city has about a dozen precincts, while Oakland has only one centralized headquarters. 

Of the killings in Oakland in 2000, 10 percent were gang-related and 14 percent were drug-related, two areas in which the police have been able to curb the number of homicides. Where the police are having trouble is in dispute-related killings, which made up 32 percent of the city’s homicides. Some of the disputes were minor, such as spilled beer and a fender-bender.