it seems like the Wells Fargo on Cal Ave gets robbed on a regullar basis as well.

Our enlightened city has neither the time nor the money to deal with trivial matters like crime, street repair or infrastructure. With bigger problems like global warming, employee pensions, racial profiling and the like to worry about, do you really think we should be acting like a 'normal' city?

It's simple. There are no police on the streets. I bet there wasn't a single officer on patrol in South Palo Alto when the 7-11 was robbed.

They are serving trays/waiting trays at Olive Garden.

Why this show of fund raising....... I am quite
irritated when the primary job is left un-finished and superflous jobs are undertaken.

Please stop these gimmics.

You know it's amazing how the police are supposed to be everywhere and do everything. Sure working a PR detail at Tip-a-Cop seems a little ridiculous and that should be communicated to the Chief. But, we expect a handful of cops to prevent robberies, stop red light runners, take accident reports, patrol our schools, do their part to insure our homeland security, investigate out identity thefts, and a million other tasks all at once. This simply can't be done with their current staffing levels. They have something like 4 or 5 cops on during the night and if one of them is taking someone to jail while a few others are breaking up fights downtown...there may be no one patrolling the streets at a given time.

I suggest we give them tasers, buy them a new station, get them some more officers, stop having them respond to noise complaints/barking dogs/and the like, and tell them to get back to what they do best: POLICE WORK. And for each of you that writes saying how they should be preventing robberies there is an equal amount of writers who will profess they should be concentrating on red light runners. How about we cough up the dough, forget about going green, funding yet another library, and instead put our money where our mouths are.

Wow,
I don't disagree with you at all. We obviously need more police, and we need them to concentrate on preventing serious crime. I'm not really blaming the police. Their staffing levels and priorities depend on the City Council.

JFP,

You're right: it does depend on the City Council. Unfortunately they apparently think global warming is more important than doing something about crime in our town.

Think about it: We may the cops feel like if they dare touch or god forbid taser a criminal (which oh by the way the law allows them to do) they are going to get sued or crucified in the press. I'm not a tough guy or an advocate of violence but our officers are will have to use force on bad guys sometimes, and to mitigate a low staffing problem, I think we should pledge our support and tell them to stop responding to trivial matters. They only respond to the stuff that we the public want them to so lets communicate with them that we only want them to go to the big stuff, at least while they have such short staffing.

I wonder if our polilce are so worried about being accused of 'racial profiling' that they hestitate to put under surveillance or question someone who in all probability does not live in a particular neighborhood?

If a lot of the crime - break ins, robberies, car jackings are found to be done by people who are pink and purple striped with orange noses, and they are seen in a neighborhood where there are few or no people who are pink and purple striped with orange noses, will the police be chastised for being suspicious? Are our police so hamstrung by 'regulations' that they are afraid to act for fear of being sued or being the subject of complaints to the Human
Relations Commisison and their carerers put in jeopardy? Just wondering.

I think you are probably correct Kate. The PA cops that I have seen seem pretty tough and intelligent at the same time. I doubt they hesitate to catch the bad guy whn given the chance but I also bet they feel like they are scrutinized every step of the way by nosey pubic and media. I guess the best thing we can do is back them up, give them the tools they need without backlash, and maybe give them a pat on teh back as oppossed to the never ending critizism. After all, I bet they know more about police work than most of us do.

I heard that the 'undisclosed' market was the Diaz Market across from Driftwood Market in the 3400 block of El Camino.

According to PA Weekly, armed and strong arm robberies are up slightly on last year.

For Gimmics...
The PR/Fundraiser was for Special Olympics. I think that anyone would agree that this is a great cause. Additionally, every Palo Alto Police Employee that was there participating did so on their "own" time. If you want to post a comment, you should probably check your facts first. Thank you.

It is good to see that PA Police have arrested two men on suspicion of robbery with possible links to others in the area. We need to make more of a headline of these successes to show the criminal element out there that crime doesn't pay and the police will get them in the end.

WE really do NOT need more billy clubbing, mace spraying, taser teasing officers in the streets here in Palo Alto.....Do you realize that the one barely turned 18 year old kid who robbed the 7-11 on Colorado went to Gunn High School? Yes, was a local kid....WHAT happened there folks???????????????? Emphasis NEEDS TO BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF OUR SCHOOLS........I believe that there should be a mandatory course of education for the children in LAW (with it's good AND bad sides...) EDUCATION is going to take the kids off the streets in the long run, saving the police from doing it...Start where it needs to be done...IN OUR SCHOOLS.................Welcome, new Superintendent............