Crime Escalates in First Half of 2011

"It looks like what we're currently experiencing is not a spike, but a wave," said Councilman Garrett Keating in response to the six-month uniform crime report presented by Piedmont's police chief Monday.

Burglaries, larcenies, and motor vehicle thefts were all up significantly nearly every month between January and June compared to the same period last year, combining for a 51 percent overall increase in crimes indexed by the FBI.

"It's been a busy year," said Police Chief John Hunt. He noted that the increase in crime looks particularly stark in comparison to last year, which was tied for having the lowest crime rate in a decade. "We're still a little bit higher than what the average has been."

The uptick in crime has been a citywide phenomenon, though it continued to be concentrated near the Grand Avenue and Oakland Avenue thoroughfares in lower Piedmont (see the map to the right).

Hunt said his department was working to combat thefts by focusing patrols in those hardest hit areas of the city.

Detective George Phifer pointed to recent incidents where Piedmont officers managed to apprehend would-be burglars based on eyewitness reports from residents of and avenues. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office has also arrested two people linked to property stolen from Piedmont.

After a the chief put an additional unit on patrol during 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. when most of the crimes were thought to have occurred. In May, the number of burglaries then dropped from 10 to 3.

"We are hoping that with the diligence of our officers, and the arrests that we've made … that it will put a damper on our future larcenies and burglaries, and time will tell," Hunt told the council. 

Councilwoman Margaret Fujioka pressed Hunt to be more proactive in getting timely information to the public about possible suspects and crimes when they occur through local media and the police department website.

Fujioka described hearing from constituents about at least one incident in which perpetrators had disarmed dogs before burglarizing a home.

"That's a really helpful point to make," she said, suggesting it was the sort of tactic Piedmont Police might want to alert the community to. "Many people in Piedmont have dogs thinking they are a deterrent to crime."

Keating proposed that the chief try deploying an extra unit again as he had in May or use volunteers to cover a low-crime district so officers assigned to those beats could spend more time cruising through higher crime areas.

"I hear it from residents, they see these crime statistics going up, and they want to know what's being done," Keating said. "Everyone expects our force to be diligent, and they are—we see it in our response time—but I think they'd like to know that there's a policy action being taken."