Like most Bay Area communities, Vallejo is facing a critical police officer shortage and the city’s now considering a plan to stop responding to most alarm calls.
Since 2020, officers were sent to more than 12,000 alarm calls. But 98% of them were false alarms. According to police data, only a small fraction ended in criminal cases.
“Of these stats from 2020 through 2022, like I said earlier, we had 30 arrests made, which is 0.3% of all the alarm calls for service,” said Sgt. Rashad Hollis with the Vallejo Police Department.
Currently, the Vallejo Police Department sends their officers to all alarm calls. But under a new proposal, they will only respond to verified alarms, where they have eyewitness reports or audio and or video surveillance.
“Any alarm call for service, received with no confirmation of an attempted or actual crime in progress will be considered unverified,” Hollis said.
But citizens and a local community justice advocate said burglars could see Vallejo as an “open market” for easy scores if the plan becomes reality and they say the city is already too violent.
“Last night, I was in a war zone. I moved from my bedroom in the front of my house for my safety after two hours of the bullets so close to me,” said Rev. Carolyn Dyson of Vallejo.
But Jason Ta, Vallejo’s police chief says by ending responses to thousands of false alarms, officers will be freed up and able to get to violent crime scenes more quickly.
“It is unacceptable for people to wait for an hour or two hours after some place got shot up. It is unacceptable for someone to sleep in their kitchen because they don’t feel safe in their front room,” he said.
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Police officials said Vallejo would not return to full service until the department is fully staffed again, which they admitted could be several years from now.
The Vallejo City Council will have the final vote on the proposal and is expected to make a decision sometime before the end of the year.
