UC Berkeley spent $7.8M on seizing and securing People's Park

BERKELEY, Calif. - UC Berkeley has released an expense account detailing how much it cost to secure and seize People's Park last month.

Cal spent nearly $7.8 million on the operation. 

About $2.9 million of that was spent on building a perimeter around the site. 

But the biggest line item was used to pay police. Cal spent nearly $4 million on law enforcement, with $1.7 million of that total spent on police overtime.

Another $1 million was spent on providing services to the homeless people who slept at the park.

This amount does not include the bills from other police departments that assisted with the seizure. 

UC Berkeley police entered the park with hundreds of mutual aid law enforcement officers the night of Jan. 3 to shut down the square block and wall it off with double-stacked shipping containers. 

They made the move pending a state Supreme Court decision over whether they can build a 1,100-bed student and supportive housing project at the location.

The park remains under 24-hour security surveillance, with APEX security officers posted at the corners of the shipping container perimeter.

Berkeleyside reported that the university expects to spend over $400 million for the entire People’s Park student housing project, which has increased from around $300 million when the UC Regents first approved the plan in 2021. To date, the university says it has spent about $16.1 million.