Crime & Safety

Is Rohnert Park Safe?

All this talk about safety in this town of 40,000 — and what's at stake if the proposed Vegas-style casino and resort comes here — had us wondering, do you feel safe here?

Data collected by the Department of Public Safety show that despite reducing its force by 23 officers — from 79 in 2010 to 56 today — crime rates have remained relatively the same for the last five years.

The Department of Public Safety released a report recently documenting crime statistics from 2007 to 2011 — numbers used to monitor major crimes and identify trends in Rohnert Park.

Felony crimes, including homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault were tallied by officers. Numbers show that there is one or less killings here a year — there were none in 2008 or 2009, but there was one in 2007, 2010 and 2011 ().

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The number of forcible rapes was up this year, from nine in 2010 to 16 in 2011. There were 16 in 2007, 11 in 2008 and nine in 2009. Aggravated assaults were also up since 2010, but down over a five-year period — police documented 162 attacks in 2011, compared to 134 in 2010 and 200 in 2007.

Robberies were down in 2011, to 16 from 22 the previous year.

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Lt. Jeff Taylor said most of the violent crimes that increased — rape and aggravated assault — were people being attacked by people they knew.

With assaults, Taylor said, "it's hard to identify any trend because many are domesitc violence."

"Rapes increased by seven," Taylor said. "A trend that we identified in this report is that the vast majority involve alcohol in social gatherings and not unidentified suspects snatching people." He said both types of attacks have the highest closure rates.

One goal in 2011, Taylor said, was to target and reduce bank robberies. Police Chief Brian Masterson echoed Taylor, who said community policing has gone a long way in making a difference.

"We had five bank robberies in 2010, so our goal was to target those crimes by increasing police presence, and in 2011 we had zero," Masterson said.

Masterson thanked the community. He said despite having a reduced force, who work 12 hour shifts now — a result of union negotiations last year that resulted in more employee concessions, the public is stepping up to report crimes in their neighborhoods.

"We've got more eyes and ears on the streets, stopping in at businesses, talking to residents," Masterson said. "That, along with people being willing to call in and report crimes has made a difference."

Police also won a traffic grant this year, which officers are using to target problem intersections. .

That citizens are calling and not being afraid to report crimes has made a dent in the number of property crimes as well. Burglaries were at 156 in 2011, down from 219 five years ago. Vechicle thefts were at 52 last year, from 87 in 2007.

What do you think? Do you feel safe here? What kinds of crime-related problems have you experienced or noticed?


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