[Bboa-members] RE: Marina Security Meeting

Fri Aug 11 19:41:29 PDT 2006

Paul:

OK I will support the Kiosk idea. Now what do you think it will cost to
build it... Minimum $75,000 and honestly in this City that is being very
conservative? 

You realize that you can't use the Ticket Booth from the Ferry Dock. You
will need to consider the following:

*	The Building (Heated - Probably a Bathroom)
*	Gates (East and West Bound)
*	Traffic Diverters (To divert traffic into one lane in and out)
*	Lighting (Sufficient to illuminate the Kiosk and area surrounding
it)
*	Signage (To explain what is going on and how to do it)

Tom Jeremiason

  _____  

From: Paul Kamen [mailto:pk at well.com] 
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 3:08 PM
To: Thomas Jeremiason; 'Janet Cobb'
Cc: BBOA
Subject: RE: [Bboa-members] RE: Marina Security Meeting

On 8/10/2006 at 8:13 PM Tom & Lori Jeremiason wrote: 

>The problem with the Kiosk (Guard Shack) is that if you close the Marina at
11pm, what do you do with the people already inside the Marina. 

There is no suggestion here to "close the Marina." The proposal is that
after 11 pm or midnight (or whatever time is chosen) access
becomescontrolled. The guard never has to take anyone's word about why they
need to enter the marina. It would require a hotel key, marina key, yacht
club key, hotel or dinner reservations (easily confirmed by phone from the
guard shack) if someone is arriving that late). 

Yes, late-night public access to the fishing pier would be lost, and I have
argued against proposals that would limit that access in the past, but I
think the time may have come to make that compromise. 

Obviously there will always be some holes in any reasonable security
system.Of course a car thief could enter early  and stay in the marina after
hours. But this is no worse than with a mobile patrol, which lacks a fixed
control point. The kiosk or guard shack could easily record license numbers
in and out, something the mobile patrol can't do.

>The problem people and the thieves will just enter before 11pm.  There are
no current laws that forbid you from being in the Marina after 11 so the
police cannot chase anyone out even if they had the staffing to do that. 

No-one is proposing chasing people out of the Marina under either the guard
shack or the mobile patrol scenario. This is a red herring. 

>So once the bad guys are in they will have the run of the Marina since the
guard is sitting at the front gate.

As noted, there are holes in any reasonable system. With the mobile patrol,
all the car thief has to do is wait for the patrol car to pass, then they
have the run of that part of the Marina. And there is no record of your
exit, and no way to restrict exit if a real-time report is made. 

Here we have the benefit of a single access and exit point, tailor made for
a gate and a guard shack. It gives us options that most high crime areas do
not have. We should take advantage of this topology. 

>You also run into the problems with the Fishing Pier. What if I am fishing
on the pier, do I have to leave at 11pm? What if I want to go to the to the
pier  after 11pm? How do you make sure I am going fishing and not coming
committing crimes? 

Again, no-one has proposed making people leave the fishing pier or any other
part of the marina when controlled access goes into effect. 

>Can the City close the pier from 10pm to 6am like the current park curfews?

I think it can, although I would hate to see it close that early, and I have
argued against restricting late-night pier access in the past. But if it's
seen as too dangerous for most people to use at night, then maybe the
trade-off is worth it from a public access point of view. That is, we might
have much safer access up to midnight (or whatever time is chosen), and then
no entry after that time. 

>How about berther guests? How do you ensure that someone who says they are
going to visit Mr Smith on the A Dock after 11pm is really going there?

By telephone. Or an escort to the dock, and escort back out if Mr. Smith is
not there. The security guy in the guard shack does not have to stay there
continuously for it to be reasonably effective. 

>No plan is perfect, but I believe a mobile patrol is much more effective
than a static guard at a Kiosk. Especially, if the Guard is in a marked city
vehicle and has the ability to communicate with the police department. 

I can think of several examples: 

*	A mobile Security Guard finds a large group of people drinking in
Hs Lordships parking lot. The guard could call police and the police could
take action (Before the next gang shooting). 
*	The Security Guard sees a suspicious vehicle in a parking lot. The
Security Guard writes down the license number of the suspicious vehicle and
notifies the Police. The next day an auto is burglarized or stolen Now the
police have a lead. 
*	A mobile Security Guard can lock gates and become familiar with the
area and its residents after hours. 

I don't think it's critical for the guard to be in the kiosk or guard shack
absolutely all the time. The guard would still have a vehicle and could
still perform all of the functions you list above. Yes, this leaves the
entrance uncontrolled for odd time intervals, but the result is clearly no
worse than an all-mobile patrol, and the security person gets to use some
on-the-ground judgment about whether it is more important to be at the
access point or moving around at any given time. 

The guard shack, the gate and the vehicle are the least expensive parts of
the system - it's the salary of the security people that is the big ongoing
expense, and I think the guard shack is a very important tool to help them
be more effective. 

The guard shack is more orientedtowards prevention, while the mobile patrol
is more about apprehending people who are already in the marina causing some
kind of trouble. Maybe this reflects the different priorities of park people
v. law enforcement. I defer to Tom's expertise in law enforcement, but it
seems to me that it makes more sense to keep the crime out of the marina
rather than chase it around inside. 

---------

Paul Kamen

Chair, Berkeley Waterfront Commission

510-540-7968  510-219-8106 (cell)

pk at well.com   www.BerkeleyWaterfront.org
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