What do We do about Rising Crime in Fremont?

By Vinnie Bacon

When the City keeps approving development that doesn't pay its way, its no surprise that our crime rate is going up.

Why has crime increased so much in Fremont? While there are no simple answers to why crimes happen, an important reason is likely to be city budget cuts. Police services and other city programs that address crime and blight have been cut way back in recent years.

At a recent community meeting, Captain Robert Nelson said that there was a significant cut to police staffing in 2001 and Fremont has one of the lowest ratios of police to citizens in Northern California. Only 12 to 13 officers are on duty at any given time throughout the City.

In addition, the City has cut funding to its Office of Neighborhoods, a program that was designed to prevent crime through grassroots community involvement. And there have been cuts to the City's code enforcement activities.

We are seeing more graffiti, gangs, abandoned shopping carts, and blighted properties. The police have adopted a policy of not responding to unverified burglar alarms and often have a two to three day response time to burglaries.

As I talk with people in Fremont, one of the most common concerns is that the police cannot respond very well to these issues because they only have enough resources to address serious crime. Unfortunately, when these 'nuisance' issues go un-addressed, it sends a message that we are not watching out for our city and that it's easy to get away with all kinds of negative behavior.

How did we get into this state that we are having trouble providing adequate funding to our Police Department and other basic city services? Part of the problem is that when new residential development comes to Fremont, even though this new development increases the need for police and other basic services, not enough revenue is raised to fund these increased needs. Also, any development that is done in a redevelopment area will generate the majority of its funds for the Redevelopment Agency, not to the City's General Fund. Funds from the Redevelopment Agency may not be used for police, fire, or code enforcement services.

The City tried to pass Measure L, a utility tax increase, in 2006 [2]. It was voted down by a margin of nearly 15%. While this would've helped the City pay for police and fire services, the citizens of Fremont obviously felt that the City should instead use its existing resources to adequately fund these services. Soon after the election, the City suddenly found that nearly one and a half million dollars was available in the Capital Improvement Program (CIP). This news led some to suggest that one should be skeptical of the City asking to raise taxes [3].

Before the City of Fremont approves any new developments, we must investigate how these developments will pay their fair share for the police and other services they will need. We should not approve any new development that will put the City further behind on being able to adequately fund basic city services.

References
1. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/violent_crime/index.html
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/2007prelim/

http://www.smartvoter.org/2006/11/07/ca/alm/meas/L/

Tri-City Voice web site