Thursday, January 6, 2011

At the heart of the crime problem

I thought I'd re-post this comment left on the Second Thoughts blog, because it illustrates one of the crucial issues regarding crime in Tracy. Namely, accurate reporting of crime so we actually know what we're dealing with:

I have learned from personal experience that a factor is how the police choose to categorize a crime is a factor.
I had a break in attempt in a commercial business, one small window in the glass storefront was smashed, there was no glass break sensor. The alarm company told me the interior motion detector was tripped. Nothing was stolen. The police categorized it as vandalism.
I complained to the officer who came to write the report, to no avail.When he departed and I was waiting for the glass company, I then finally took time to rewind the surveillance cams, which caught the perpetrator walking inside, then suddenly turning and running out as the alarm sounded.
I called the PD to come back and showed them the video, and they had to agree to change it to burglary.
~ Anonymous

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

David Helms had the same experience in Pleasanton, related to the CC at last nights meeting. He had a break-in and instead of burglary, they classified it as vandalism and theft.
The officer doing the report told him to his face that they don't like to write up reports as burglaries.
My experience (I left the anonymous comment) was here in Tracy, almost the exact same experience.