Crime has crept higher this spring than last, but arrests have
lagged
– a trend
that has the police union pushing for more staffing.
Gilroy – Crime has crept higher this spring than last, but arrests have lagged – a trend
that has the police union pushing for more staffing.
“There’s no change in our position,” said Cpl. Jim Callahan, president of the Gilroy Police Officers Association, which has argued for more officers in response to similar statistics in the past. “We’ve said it all before.”
Reported crimes were 14 percent higher this April to June than last, with bigger increases recorded in burglaries (58 percent), robberies (33 percent), and simple assault (31 percent.) Aggravated assaults dropped 27 percent, and arrests have slipped 2 percent from 838 to 819.
Chief Gregg Giusiana was unavailable for comment last week, and did not return repeated calls this week from the Dispatch requesting a telephone interview. Gilroy Police Sgt. Jim Gillio, the department spokesperson, said the chief was in meetings Thursday afternoon, and asked that questions be sent via e-mail. No response was received by press time Thursday.
Some chalked up the numbers to staffing levels, which have fallen short of the city goal of 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents: No new officers have been hired in the past five years, said City Council member Craig Gartman. Tim Day, a candidate for City Council, said he felt it would be financially feasible to hire two or three additional officers; candidate Cat Tucker was unsure of the crime rates, but said hiring should reflect the city’s needs. Gartman suggested that the city could have spared a Web developer – a $70,000 position, he said – and hired another officer this summer.
“It’s disturbing to me that crimes are up, but our arrest rate is down,” he said. “We don’t have the officers on the street to arrest and solve these crimes.”
But others noted that the increases aren’t large, and citizens generally feel safe in Gilroy. Orienne Dreyer-Brown, a Gilroy nurse, said she’s at ease in the city, despite a winter car burglary that pinched her husband’s computer; barista Nick Price, 19, shrugged off the issue, saying, “Crime isn’t much of a problem at all.” Gilroyan John Ganzel recounted a lightning-fast police response to a drunk-driving incident, and building inspector Kenny Dominguez said he was satisfied, though he wanted to see officers go back to “the old style: a smile on the face, not a suspicious eye.”
“I don’t see any red flags,” said Dion Bracco, a City Council member. “I listen to the expert: the chief of police. He’s not coming to me saying, ‘You’ve got to hire me more officers.'”
Bracco noted that Gilroy’s police-to-population ratio of 1.2 officers per 1,000 residents is higher than neighboring cities, including Morgan Hill, which reported an officer ratio of less than 1 per 1,000 residents this spring. As for the union’s plea for more officers, he said, “Unions always say that. That’s what they’re supposed to do, get their brothers a job … Our philosophy of paying more and hiring the best of the best has worked, and when you hire better officers, you can do more with less.”
Others argue that to cut down crime, the city needs to pull officers back onto patrol from special assignments, such as the Anti-Crime Team, and from report-writing in the station. Some officers complain that typing up their own reports, instead of dictating them as in years past, is costing them time on patrol – and pushing crime rates. Computers installed in cars were intended to allow officers to do that typing on the street, but the systems have proven dysfunctional, forcing officers to return to the station.
“You don’t see officers on the street the way you did 15 years ago,” said Perry Woodward, a candidate for City Council. “The rank and file are discontent … The most significant problem is, there’s a lack of leadership within the department.”
Mayor Al Pinheiro and Council members Peter Arellano and Paul Correa did not return calls seeking comment. City Council members Roland Velasco and Russ Valiquette said they couldn’t comment on the statistics yet. To fully understand the numbers, Velasco said he’s waiting on the results of a recently completed staffing study, still under review by police administration before being released to Council and the public.
“We can’t start to run around in a panic,” Velasco said. “And you can’t look at any of these things” – the staffing study, the statistics and the yearly budget – “by themselves. We need a comprehensive look across the city that takes all factors into account.”
Steve Smith, head of the Administration of Justice Department at Gavilan College, pointed out the limitations of the Gilroy numbers, which use standardized FBI categories. The FBI system doesn’t specifically track drug crimes or gang crimes, noted Smith – both of which are major forces in local crime. Nor are the statistics subject to review.
“The key thing is, it’s voluntary,” said Smith. “It’s an honor system with no auditing and no oversight.”
