I hope we aren't headed for another big upward swing in crime. Its time for our elected officials to get serious about running the real day-to-day business of our city and get some more cops hired and on the streets.

So Craig-

It's that simple. Get serious about running the city and "get more cops on the street". Thanks for showing all of us how to "run a city".

Now Safeway got robbed this morning.

Why should the city council members worry about mundane municipal things like crime and keeping the streets repaired when they can tackle more important global issues like climate change?

Dealing with crime, street repair and other local issues just means dealing with a bunch of noisy interest groups, and more importantly involves actually DOING something.

With climate change, you can go to lots of cool conferences, flaunt your moral righteousness and pass some high minded resolutions that nobody could disagree with - and never actually have to do any icky legislating at all. What's not to like?

Did these robberies just happen? Why don't we give our officers a chance to work on them before we start demanding a hiring binge. I have a lot of respect for our police force, I think it would be a bad idea to start giving them mandate on how to do their jobs. I see no reason to increase their payroll until they say they need to.

JustMe,

These robberies DID just happen. The problem is that they do not seem to be sudden isolated incidents, but rather a continuation of a disturbing rise in violent criminal acts in our community. You may recall the street robberies in the recent past.

Maybe we're just bearing our part of a region-wide crime rise - though I do not think there are statistics that bear this out. The worry is that this is just one more area where our city leaders are not paying attention to the basic elements of municipal governance because they're absorbed with more esoteric or parochial interests.

It is already clear that there are not enough police patrolling Palo Alto. Just look at the continuing high level of home burglaries and theft from cars. Now, we are getting armed robberies and muggings.

Clearly you people are not paying attention to our mayor, who just gave the State of the City address, while clad and I quote, in a "slightly shimmery purple suit and a sheer golden scarf", and I might add her rose-coloured glasses.
According to our esteemed mayor Palo Alto is "robust and resilient"--there are apparently no budget, infrastructure or crime problems that need to be addressed at the current time by the city council, that is why some of them are busy cavorting in Washington D.C.:
Web Link

"some of them are busy cavorting in Washington D.C"

I think we're better off with them in Washington D.C than we are with them here. Any chance we could send the rest of them there too.

Our city is brisltling
Old PA is a thriving

Amidst the backdrop of our war on terror
and the annihilation of Iraq

Were doing just fine,
the mayor lets us know

Don't worry about that old constitution
Or your rights

Old Bush is gonna deliver
oil for us all

or at least his buddies....

What worries me most about these robberies is that they keep on happening. Yesterday we asked what late night venue would be next. Now we know. I am sure that the police are working on this, have their detectives on the case interviewing, etc. etc. I do not doubt that they are doing all that is in their power and I am in no way criticizing them.

However, is there a rumor going round the criminal faction that Palo Alto is a soft touch? Is there a reason why we have been suffering many burglaries, muggings and now armed robberies. This is something I am not happy about. Yes, we must let the police get on with their work, but the increase in crime is something we must address.

If City officials can party it up in DC dressed in their finary and get compliments on their "sexy dancing" while telling the world that we are a wonderful community taking care of the environment and everyone should do things the Palo Alto Way, while crime is increasing, then it must be time for us to get some more community minded officials. Where are the comments from the Mayor on what the City is doing to put a stop to this crime wave? Where are the top officials when we need them?

Resident says, "Where are the comments from the Mayor on what the City is doing to put a stop to this crime wave?"

From the Mayor's speech:

"Now is the time to institutionalize by creating an Environmental Commission, with a charter to create a plan for achieving our ambitious climate protection goals and bring our economy into harmony with the environment. Let us translate this moment of opportunity into a lasting cultural and organizational change for the next Seven Generations."

So, just a dumb question: Has anyone gotten a take from the police on the crime trend? Are they indeed seeing an increase? Is there any evidence, other than anecdotal, that we have a crime spree running rampant in PA? Remember, a few articles or stories online or in the paper are anecdotal, we need the level-watchers to chime in with data. I don't want to announce a falling sky without data to back me up.

Of course, if what you are trying to do is toss mud on the city government, then I guess chicken little is the game to play.

But I refuse to get upset without proof. Get that, and LOTS of people will follow your lead. Without that, you are just noise.

John W and Dave, you are missing the point. The recent crime wave is due to global warming. The criminals heard the Goracle say that our food supply is threatened by global warming, so they are robbing Safeway and McDonalds. In fact, it seems pretty clear at this point that *all* problems worldwide, current and future, are due to global warming.

No statistics are available for the most recent year, but the anecdotal reports and stories in the press make it seem likely that the trends in the crimes below (reported on the Palo Alto Police Departments Website Web Link are continuing.

Burglary 2001:254 2002:225 2003:276 2004:290 2005:371

Robbery 2001:36 2002:45 200342 2004:38 2005:47

Nice statistics John, it certainly shows a trend over the last few years. The next question is if we have access to the number of officers in the PAPD over those years. Can we show that crime has been going up while staffing levels have remained at 2001 levels? If you can do that, then we might have an argument here.

This makes it even more rediculous to oppose the public safety building bond. our police need better resources to fight crime and kep us safe!

Tim -
Responding to your earlier comment, I merely meant that it concerns me that the Mayor is paying a little too much attention to things like global warming and a bunch of other impressive sounding global topics when some of us feel that a surge in crime is a tad bit more immediately important.
My assemsment that we need more cops is only a reflection of comments I've read on here about how few officers there are patrolling at any given time. They are informal comments - this board is informal, the last time I checked.
Now lets get serious and fight some crime.

Let's take that $400K we save in field maintenance by outsourcing and get 4 new policeman on the beat. Oops, that's right, we won't be saving that this year since the union bullied weak-kneed council into saving those jobs. As for the bond issue, did they have new officers included in that $90MM request or was that just for the Taj Mahal of police departments.

To Make A Choice,

If you did your homework, you would know that Palo Alto still has openings for police officers. They even spent $10,000. on a billboard, on Hwy 101 to show that they are hiring. Maybe there is better pay and benifits in other cities.
Oh, by the way the term "policeman" is no longer used. If you notice- we have had female police officers for the last 25 years.

Does anyone know if any of these three crimes have been solved. If so, what is the news on this one. Were they connected? Where were the perpetrators from. I heard that there was a potential robbery at the old Albertsons site in Alma Plaza prevented when the thieves were caught in the act by local residents. Is this the way PA PD solve crime? These thieves were resident of San Jose. Does this show that we have the reputation among the criminal classes of being a soft touch? I want to see PA doing something about this and no more of it being buried in the background, let us the residents know what is going on and what is being done to stop it happening again.

According to the news section in PA Online, we now have had another armed robbery, this time of a neighborhood market.

WWhat is being done about crime? Isn't crime just as important as environmental issues, or anything else. Can't we have a commission set up for crime?