Full Notification

As you have likely seen, FBI crime statistics for 2016 were released yesterday.  The change in the number of Fremont violent crime reports for our city and others has drawn substantial media attention, a shift for us of 24.6%.  This growth correctly represents an increase in the number of serious crimes taking place in our community.  However, it is important we all have a valid understanding of what this data signifies and remain realistic in our reaction to the information.  We want to be vigilant but not overly fearful.

Most of our increases have occurred in two categories, robbery and aggravated assault.  The robbery statistic is comprised of very serious situations where a suspect confronts a store owner in their business or community member on the street and threatens the victim with a weapon.  However, the data also includes other situations such as where a person takes merchandise from a store then escalates what is happening by pushing away or fighting to avoid being stopped.  In the case of aggravated assault, with many of these regrettable situations, the victim and suspect have some level of connection to each other.  Taking these two crime categories together, the total increase was 75 cases.  As a matter of comparison, our total robberies for 2016 was 184, well under our recent historic high of 256 in 2006.  While no level of victimization is acceptable to our department, when considered in the context of a population of 231,000 people, our city compares very favorable as a safe community.

The shift in our crime pattern we associate to a wide range of factors.  As examples, we are confident the reduction in criminal sanctions brought about by Proposition 47 has led to increases in crime in our community.  We are also being impacted by serious and very mobile offenders frequently active in our jurisdiction and in the region.  We are grateful for the effort of our community and department together directed toward dealing with these problems and building our level of safety.  This has included awareness and prompt reporting in our neighborhoods and businesses, use of publicly and privately owned community video technology, and specific and focused law enforcement directed at the most serious offenders.  We hope this has influenced the reduction in our cumulative residential burglary rate at a level of over 50% to date.  Of importance, in recent budget cycles, we have also received staffing increases to our department and look forward optimistically this will be able to continue.

In the interest of ease of access, if you would like to examine our crime data more closely, you can access all of our statistics on our website at www.fremontpolice.org/statistics.

Thank you for your partnership and investment in the success of our community.

Richard Lucero
Chief of Police