Police Department Issues

By Shawn Brandon

The Bakersfield Police Department is facing serious problems right now. These problems are only going to get worse over the next few years. Growing population and fewer officers per capita have lead to increased response times and the crime rate rising 24% since 2000. These issues need to be addressed now before crime spirals out of control.

During the last four years, our crime rate has risen 24%. More disturbing is some of the individual crime numbers. Property crime, drugs, and gangs are bad and we need to fight these; however, crimes against persons are the most serious. Crimes against persons such as rape, assault, and murder hurt people and their families. Crimes against persons are up 85% since 2000. Many other crime rates are spiraling out of control as well. Burglary is up 17%, larceny is up 54%, auto theft is up 100%, and aggravated assault is up an astounding 162%. See the crime rates chart for a complete list.

Budget

Many in city government will try to blame our current situation on budget shortfalls caused by the state raiding our tax revenues. Other California cities that are experiencing the current budget crunch aren't neglecting their public safety departments like Bakersfield does. Fresno, our neighbor to the north, has aggressively added officers each year to match population growth. During the same 03-04 budget crunch we experienced, Fresno added 67 police officers. This year they added 20 officers. Comparing those numbers to Bakersfield, we lost 3 sworn employees in the 03-04 budget year and one officer in the 04-05 budget year.

Conclusion

City government is asleep at the wheel. We had a declining crime rate for many years. During the housing and population boom starting in 2000, our city government did not react to the changing situation and increase funding for the police department to match population growth levels. As a result, crime has risen significantly every year since 2000. We need to make a change in city government. We need to address these issues now before crime gets worse.