CRIME UPDATE
We are pleased with the crime reductions in Richmond during 2013, as well as during the first months of 2014. As of March 1, violent crime was down 21% compared to the same period last year, and property crime was down 28%. Notably, Residential Burglaries are down 50% and Vehicle Theft has decreased by 34%.
These reductions can likely be attributed to several factors. The first is strong consistent prevention efforts by residents throughout the city. Community members are doing an outstanding job being more aware of what’s going on where they live; improving lighting, locks, and the physical environment around their homes; as well as reporting suspicious activity in and around their neighborhoods.
The second factor is the excellent crime analysis work being done within the Police Department. Officers and detectives receive regular updates about crime “hotspots”, known offenders, and crime trends through crime analysis bulletins, predictive policing updates, and COMPSTAT meetings.
Finally, we make every effort possible to assign officers to the same patrol beats each time they report to work. Along with the benefit of allowing more time to get to know the community members, This increases the level of familiarity officers have with their beats, including an understanding of where crime is occurring and who the problem people are that need extra attention. By focusing on the right places and the right people, we are more effective in our policing and can drive crime down.
Despite the overall progress being made, we still have plenty of work to do. Street robberies (up 35% compared to last year—a net gain of 7 through March 1) continue to be a significant problem. Many of these robberies involve victims who were walking from one place to another and not paying attention to their surroundings. Often they were talking on a cellphone or had ear-buds in and were distracted. Robberies of this kind can happen anywhere, but the area surrounding the Richmond BART Station continues to be especially attractive to thieves. To address this problem, we have stepped up our enforcement efforts in these neighborhoods and are working with the BART Police.
Gang violence is an ongoing challenge in Richmond. While there is no one simple answer to this problem, the Department has made major progress by focusing on key individuals who we know are involved in street shootings and retaliatory gun violence. Last year, working with the D.A.’s Office, we utilized a court approved wire-tap to build criminal cases against a large number of gang members who were conspiring to commit shootings and homicides. In some cases, we intercepted up to four gang members (usually in stolen vehicles), all heavily armed, on their way to the very locations they had spoken about during the intercepted phone calls, clearly planning to commit murder(s).
The Police Department is using a wide range of tools to stem gun violence. We continue to be active participants in the “Ceasefire—Alive & Free” initiative. Ceasefire involves doing call-ins or making home visits that involve active shooters. The called-in individuals are then given a choice: accept support and services to get out of gang life (including job training, anger management counseling, substance abuse services, etc.) or expect tougher police scrutiny and consequences associated with any criminal behavior. We are grateful for our outstanding community and law enforcement partners who have helped to make Ceasefire a very successful program in Richmond over the last several years.
Crime reduction is never a “completed project.” Our plan for the remainder of the year is to work collaboratively with the community to maintain and build our prevention efforts, strategically focus on “hot people” and “hot places”, utilize technology and crime data as effectively as possible, and strengthen our relationships with Richmond residents to meet our public safety goals.
THE MYTH OF “FULL POLICE STAFFING”
While the Department is authorized for 195 sworn officers (a number that includes all sworn personnel from the newest recruit all the way up to the Chief), that doesn’t mean we have that many officers actually available to handle calls or provide other services. Of our 195 sworn personnel, approximately 100 are assigned to patrol duties as beat cops or supervisors.
The attached chart shows that as of February 2014, 33 police officers positions were either vacant or occupied by personnel who were unable to work in a solo patrol capacity due to injuries, administrative leave status, or because they were still in the Police Academy or other early phase of their training. “Frozen/Frictional” positions are positions the Department is unable to fill at this time due to City budget cuts.
The bottom line is that “full staffing” remains an elusive goal that we have yet to achieve. Because of our patrol vacancies, we end up utilizing more overtime than we’d like to fill all the patrol beats each shift; so assuring officers’ beat continuity is more difficult than we’d prefer.
We continue to actively recruit new police officer candidates, including well-qualified “lateral” officers who have already attended a police academy or worked for another agency. Now that other communities around us are also hiring officers after a prolonged “dry spell”, getting the best possible candidates who are the right fit for Richmond is more challenging than it was a couple of years ago. Fortunately, many potential candidates are attracted to our community policing model and are excited about joining the “Richmond Team.” That said, filling vacancies is a slow process, so we appreciate the community’s patience and support.
ADDRESSING HUMAN TRAFFICKING & PROSTITUTION
The Richmond Police Department is strongly committed to addressing the many aspects of both human trafficking and prostitution that occur in our city. While it is cliche? to say that prostitution is “the world’s oldest profession”, what many people do not realize is that the new face of prostitution is younger and younger girls and boys, often runaways or other vulnerable youth, who are being pimped out by gangs as an easy source of money. Many of the individuals we have arrested on the 23rd Street corridor are girls as young as 12 and 13.
Simply “arresting” these girls is not a good solution to the problem. The Department has a strong working relationship with Community Violence Solutions (CVS) to offer intervention and services to these young women. Often, these individuals need intensive counseling, resources, and ongoing follow- through to keep them from returning to the streets. It is not uncommon that many of these girls have suffered abuse within their families and now they are in constant fear of further abuse at the hands of their pimps. This is a very difficult cycle to break!
The situation with prostitution in the lower Ohio Avenue area is complex in its own right. Many of the prostitutes in this area are from the surrounding neighborhoods and have serious economic and drug addiction problems. In fact, it is usually their addiction to drugs that keeps them on the streets as prostitutes. Some of the women working this area have “rap-sheets” as long as your arm and have been in and out of both prison and jail over much of their adult lives. One woman we recently picked up for soliciting had been arrested 24 times for prostitution-related offenses!
We understand that dealing with the prostitutes alone is like trying to sit on a one-legged stool. The other two components of the problem that need to be successfully addressed involve the pimps (the individuals “selling” the prostitutes) and the “johns” (the individuals picking up the prostitutes). RPD is part of a regional Human Trafficking Task Force, so we are working closely with other local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to focus more intensively on pimps—particularly those associated with larger human trafficking rings and gangs. One piece of good news is that the penalties for pimping have recently increased significantly.
We are also implementing the use of “Dear John” letters. These are letters addressed to the registered owner of individuals whose vehicles have been repeatedly seen picking up or engaging with prostitutes. These letters are not accusatory, but they do alert the recipient that someone driving their vehicle was observed “lingering” in an area frequented by prostitutes. The letters warn of the legal penalties and other risks associated with picking up prostitutes; kind of an “If the shoe fits . . .” admonition.
The Department understands why residents and business owners are frustrated by prostitution and want this problem addressed as aggressively as possible. We are planning multiple operations over the upcoming months to focus on pimps and johns. We value the help community members are providing us to make our enforcement and intervention efforts as successful as possible.
FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
You can stay up to date with what we’re working on, public safety issues, crime information, crime prevention tips and much more on-line. Check out our web page at www.richmondpd.net. You can also find daily updates on our Facebook page at “The Richmond Police Department.” (Because we are a government agency, you don’t need to “friend” us on Facebook, and we don’t see any of your information, but we’d appreciate it if you “like” us!) Want information on crime activity in your neighborhood? Check out the link on our web page to www.crimemapping.com.
The Chief also “tweets” brief highlights of RPD activities (which are also placed on our Facebook page) that you can access at Twitter: @RPDChiefMagnus. Not enough for you? Look for us on Instagram and Pinterest as well!
Coming soon, you will be able to download our new RPD App for iPhone and Android. You’ll be able to use this convenient app from your Smartphone to access contact information for any member of the Department, provide anonymous crime tips, report blight, get hiring information, and much more. Look for this new app to be available later this spring!
