As Southern California burns, the people of Northern California grapple with escalating crime that has the residents of a small town fearing for the “safety of their community.”
The once sleepy city of Vallejo, about 30 miles outside San Francisco, has earned a place on the FBI's national watch list for small towns thanks to its high crime rate.
Fed up residents have reignited a petition initially started nearly a year ago, which is calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to deploy state and county officers “to help Vallejo with its rising crime problem.”
“As a resident of Vallejo, California, I am deeply concerned about the safety of my community,” petitioner Paula Conley wrote.
“Our city is facing rising crime rates due to severe understaffing in our local police department. We deserve a clean, safe city where we can live without fear.”
Nearly 4,000 others agreed, with resident Sharon saddened by what she said was a city she was “proud to live in.”
“I'm always nervous and afraid and always worried about my safety and whoever comes to visit me. I've been here 39 years and [deterioration] This once beautiful city is so depressing. We need help, we need leadership, we want our city back! I wrote.
The city of Vallejo has suffered from a sordid police history in the past decade — including two fatal police shootings — but crime data shows violent crime there exploded in 2024.
The city of just 120,000 people saw 23 grisly murders between January and November 2024, according to police data, with residents saying the numbers have risen again in the past two months.
Among the most horrific crimes, city public sector workers discovered a human limb emerging from bags of construction debris on Christmas Eve, Open Vallejo reported. A week later, on New Year's Eve, a shooting left another person dead.
There were also 44 rapes last year – representing a massive 26% increase from the same time frame in 2023.
The city also faced 12 fatal traffic accidents, 86 sexual assaults, 503 aggravated assaults, 1,101 burglaries and auto thefts, 200 shootings, and 352 domestic violence cases in 2024.
Residents see the city's understaffed police department as the culprit, even though the agency has added several new members to its ranks in the past year.
The city appointed the interim police chief as the department's permanent head at the beginning of the month after what officials described as a “robust national search.”
Jason Ta inherited a department that has been under state oversight since 2020 — shortly after a city cop fatally shot 20-year-old Willie McCoy during a drive-by at a Taco Bell, a homicide that was ruled the result of officer misconduct.
It is not known whether Newson and the state of California will be able to meet Vallejo's demands for enhanced security.
More than 7,500 firefighters, National Guardsmen and emergency responders from across the state were sent to Los Angeles to battle wildfires that have been burning for more than a week.
The deadly fires killed 27 people and destroyed more than 11,000 buildings after more than 40,000 acres burned since January 7.
