Crime Rate Declines in San Ramon

Criminal statistics from a recent report administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation indicated a 3 percent decline in violent and property crimes over the last year, reinforcing San Ramon's status as consistently being one of the safest communities in the Tri-Valley and Contra Costa County.

According to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program—a nationwide, cooperative effort of city, county and state law enforcement agencies to generate a reliable set of criminal data since 1930 —the total number of violent and property crimes in San Ramon decreased from 1,177 in 2008 to 1,143 in 2009.

"It means that we're being effective as a police department," said San Ramon police Chief Scott Holder. "We've been able to lower these numbers and our goal is to keep lowering them every year."

In 2009, there were no murder or manslaughter instances and one forcible rape, down from four cases in 2008, the report stated.

Two violent crime categories—robberies and assault or battery—have remained at lower levels after declining significantly between 2006 and 2007, when the city stopped contracting with the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department and created its own police department. At the time of transition, the number of sworn officers grew from 50 to 56, the present count.

Robbery figures dropped from 25 in 2006 to 15 in 2007 and 2008 and 17 in 2009. Assault or battery cases, numbered at 224 in 2006, declined to 162 in 2007, 157 in 2008 and 142 in 2009.

According to San Ramon police Administrative Lt. Liz Gresham, the department has not done anything "above and beyond what (police) normally do" to keep assault and battery statistics down.

"(The report) just supports the work that we continue to do and the various programs that we have in effect," she said.

While there was a 17 percent decrease in overall burglaries owed to a drop in commercial and other burglary types from 133 in 2008 to 81 in 2009, there were 20 more reported cases of residential burglaries, bringing the total up to 71.

"When the economy goes down, generally speaking property crime rises and that's what I would attribute it to," Holder said. "Circumstances that the police department can directly be involved in such as burglaries (are) something that we have a more personal hand in affecting."

The 62 reported auto thefts are the lowest number the city has experienced since 2000, but petty and grand thefts increased to 769 in 2009 from 751 the previous year.

Holder added that property crime is an area the department is directing efforts to improve this year.

"[We're trying to do] more special operations, targeting areas with extra patrol and higher presence," said Holder, "and following up on people who are on probation and parole in the area, do more checks on them."

Police and city officials attributed low crime rates to programs like CHARACTER COUNTS! and My Beat – My School at schools and Crime Free Business and Crime Free Multi-Housing, which trains property managers to recognize and exclude criminal activity.

Properties participating in the Crime Free Multi-Housing experienced an 89 percent decrease in arrests and a 67 percent decrease in criminal reports between the program's 2007 launch and 2009, according to San Ramon police Cpl. Lance Santiago, one of the coordinators.

"Because of the screening process, you reduce crime by keeping those who are criminally-minded off the area in the first place," he said. "And with the crime-free lease addendum, they are subject to eviction."

The crime rate for San Ramon in 2009 was 18.09 crimes per 1,000 residents, "very low" compared to the national average of 40.02 crimes per 1,000 residents in cities with populations between 50,000 and 99,999, according to the bureau's 2008 Crime in the United States report. Data for 2009 will not be available until this fall.

Despite the good marks, Gresham stressed the importance of having a broader perspective when evaluating the department's performance.

"The best way to look at policing is to look at the trends that you have before you rather than what you have at the end of the year and then go back," she said. "We address issues as they come up."

Although premature, Gresham added that nothing unusual has cropped up for 2010 so far and that the trends seem to be "maintaining and going down in some areas."

"San Ramon is a relatively low-crime city so usually your shifts either up or down are going to be fairly low also and that's what the trends seem to show here," she said.

Councilmember Scott Perkins said the community's willingness to contact police when citing suspicious activity has been a key factor in the police department's success.

"We just don't have enough officers to be there all the time so we encourage citizens to participate and help the excellent and proactive police force out in the community," he said.

San Ramon resident Andrew Pryfogle, 40, held the police department in similar high esteem.

"We're big fans of our police department," he said. "They're doing a fantastic job and we have no complaints, we have a safe community and we love it here."