As south California burns, northern Californians are grappling with a surging crime that has residents in one small city fearing for the “safety of their community.”
The once-quiet city of Vallejo, about 30 miles outside of San Francisco, landed a spot on the FBI’s nationwide watchlist for small cities thanks to its expanding crime rate.
Fed-up residents have reignited a petition initially started nearly a year ago, which demands Gov. Gavin Newsom deploy state and county officers “to assist Vallejo with its spiraling crime problem.”
“As a resident of Vallejo, CA, I am deeply concerned about the safety of my community,” wrote Paula Conley, the petition starter.
“Our city has been grappling with escalating crime rates due to severe understaffing in our local police department. We deserve a clean and safe city where we can live without fear.”
Nearly 4,000 others agreed, with resident Sharon grieving what she said was once a city she “was proud to live in.”
“I’m always tensed, afraid and always worried and my safety and those that come visit. I have been here 39 years and the [deterioration] of this once beautiful City is so disheartening. WE NEED HELP, WE NEED LEADERSHIP, WE WANT OUR CITY BACK!” she wrote.
Vallejo has grappled with a sordid police history in the last decade — including two high-profile fatal police shootings — but crime data shows that violent crime there exploded in 2024.
The city of just 120,000 suffered a shocking 23 murders between January and November 2024, according to police data — with residents saying the numbers surged yet again in the last two months.
Among the most grisly crimes, city public workers discovered a human limb sticking out 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 was also 44 rapes in the last year — marking a whopping 26% increase from the same time frame in 2023.
The city also grappled with 12 fatal traffic incidents, 86 sexual assaults, 503 aggravated assaults, 1,101 auto burglary/theft cases, 200 shootings and 352 domestic violence cases in 2024.
Residents theorized that an understaffed city police department was to blame, despite the agency adding several new members to its ranks in the last year.
The city appointed its interim police chief as the permanent department head at the start of the month after what officials called a “robust national search.”
Jason Ta inherited a department under state oversight since 2020 — shortly after a city cop fatally shot 20-year-old Willie McCoy in the drive-thru of a Taco Bell, a murder that was ruled the result of officer misconduct.
Whether Newson and the state of California can meet Vallejo’s demands for beefed-up security is unknown.
Over 7,500 firefighters, National Guard and emergency responders from across the state have been sent to Los Angeles to fight the wildfires that have been burning for more than a week.
The deadly fires killed 27 people and destroyed more than 11,000 structures after the raging infernos burned through over 40,000 acres since Jan. 7.
