Berkeley City Council Vote On Police Chief Expected Tuesday

BERKELEY, CA — A vote on whether to make Berkeley's interim police chief permanent may happen Tuesday despite pending investigations into misconduct by police officers.

The Berkeley City Council may vote to make interim Police Chief Jen Louis's job permanent amid accusations of racist and disparaging text messages by police.

Sgt. Darren Kacala, who was head of Berkeley's police union at the time the messages became public, is on leave from the police department and has stepped aside as president of the union, the Berkeley Police Association.

Kacalek was the supervisor of the department's downtown task force/bike unit when he allegedly sent some of the messages and allegations against him became public.

A former officer, Corey Shedoudy, sent city officials an email in November 2022 with the allegations, and attached text messages.

In one message Kacalek appears to repost a message from a person selling their "white privilege card," according to the website Secure Justice, a nonprofit based in Oakland that published some of the messages.

"I may even be willing to do an even trade for a race card," the post says.

Shedoudy's email claims that the bike unit was ordered by Kacalek to make 100 arrests per month. That was "more than the rest of the police department combined," according to a copy of Shedoudy's email, posted on the Secure Justice website.

Community group Berkeley Copwatch says Louis's awareness of or complicity with inappropriate messages and related behavior needs to be determined and considered before the council vote.

The Berkeley Police Accountability Board maintains that two investigations into the texting scandal need to be complete before the council votes to make Louis the permanent chief, said board chair John "Chip" Moore III on Friday.

The board and its director replaced the Police Review Commission as of July 1, 2021.

The Police Accountability Board is doing one investigation to see if police policies and practices need to be improved in light of the inappropriate messages.

An independent investigator hired by the city is conducting the other investigation. The investigator will determine whether some officers failed to comply with police policies or local, state and federal laws, and if discipline is appropriate.

Data compiled by Berkeley Copwatch shows that average arrests per officer in the bike unit spiked in 2019 and after Louis became interim chief.

Just before the pandemic hit in 2020, the average arrests by each officer in the bike unit reached more than 20 per quarter, compared with about seven in the rest of the police department.

Following Louis's selection as interim chief, average arrests by each officer in the bike unit per quarter rose to 17 in 2022, compared with about seven for the rest of the department.

Berkeley Copwatch data also shows spikes in arrests by the Berkeley bike unit in 2020 and 2022, that the Alameda County District Attorney's Office dismissed for lack of evidence or in the interest of justice.

Louis denied in November that she knew about the alleged misconduct. Through a city spokesperson, Louis said she became aware of the messages Nov. 10, 2022.

Louis added that the alleged misconduct did not occur under her supervision.

"I was the captain in charge of the Operations Division until January 2018, which was before any of the incidents in this subunit allegedly occurred," Louis said. "I was appointed as Interim chief in March 2021, after these alleged incidents occurred."

She said the allegations are "extremely concerning, and they deserve to be investigated thoroughly."

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