Features

City Manager, Police Chief to Respond To Committee Recommendations To Prevent Theft by Police

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday November 06, 2007

City Manager Phil Kamlarz and Police Chief Doug Hambleton will be at the Wednesday Police Review Commission meeting to respond to a subcommittee report on evidence theft issues. 

Last year former Sgt. Cary Kent pleaded guilty to felonies stemming from his theft of drug evidence he was charged with keeping safe. He subsequently spent one year on home detention.  

Following Kent’s conviction—and the charges against another officer for stealing property of arrestees—a subcommittee has been working to put in place new policies to reduce the possibility that these kinds of criminal actions could reoccur within the department. 

The subcommittee made a number of recommendations to the police chief and city manager, including improving the systems for auditing drug evidence and remedying deficiencies in the Kent investigation such as identifying the exact amount of drugs that were missing from all of the evidence envelopes that had been tampered with. 

The full report can be found on the PRC website: www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/prc. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. There will be time for public comment. 

 

—Judith Scherr