Crime in Concord - No this isn’t Oakland
Categories: Concord Feature News
Written By: Concord Blogger
I just wrote about the crime rate in Concord mentioning how low the violent crime was in the city. I was surprised to hear that recently there were two armed robberies in Concord in the same day. I am not completely surprised, the economy sucks and crime tends to trend up when that happens. Armed robberies are nothing unheard of, Oakland has been seeing a large number of them and though they have a few people in custody, that hasn’t stopped copy cat criminals from following suit. Maybe Concord just seems like an easy target.
Three armed robberies this month took place in businesses around Concord. Men with weapons bust in, take the cash from the register and sometimes even the victims wallets, then they’re gone. The CPD responds quickly but the criminals have always gotten away.
Maybe I’m paranoid about the criminal element in Concord but the lack of reporting from the Concord PD being followed up by blogs reporting on additional crimes makes me worry. I want to make clear this is nothing against the line officer on patrols everyday responding to call after call. I know what thats like to some level and want to be clear that the Concord Police Officers are not the focus of this post. It the policies I’m questioning, not the people.
Types of crime in Concord
There are different ways of gathering the types and locations of criminal activity in Concord. Actually it’s a bit frustrating that the Concord Police just don’t let the public have access to the information the same way other departments in the area do. Typically, I would look through the excerpts provided by the Concord Transcript. Now that I’m focusing more on the local blog scene, I have found that people report crime on these blogs more frequently and have better information than even the Contra Costa Times has. This just goes to show the value of a local blog over a mainstream media source.
Residential burglaries - Blue
Drugs-Red
Assault - Yellow
This is just a piece of what I saw int the most recent Concord Transcript and reflect some of the larger crimes I noticed on the list. Information is nice to get from the local paper but I wonder why they do not note the more serious crimes like armed robberies, bank robberies and others that are more of a concern to me as a resident than reading about someone being cited for driving with a suspended license (these are highlighted in the Concord Transcript also).
Crime reports online
There is no way one person can go through the Concord Transcript, the Contra Costa times, other mainstream media and the local blogs to gather a REAL picture of the crime in the city of Concord. I for one would like to know what’s going on in my city. Maybe I am the only one? Looking for something that would cover the area, I came across CrimeReports.
CrimeReports is an online database that collects police logs from around North America. The only local agency that seems to use them as a criminal database is the Contra Costa Sheriffs Dept. Many police agencies in the surrounding counties are also tied into this service. Oakland Police Department, San Francisco Police Department, El Cerrito Police Department, Hercules Police Department, Pinole Police Department, San Pablo Police Department, Danville Police Department, Orinda Police Department, Lafayette Police Department, Oakley Police Department
With so many agencies in the area using CrimeReports, I wonder why Concord doesn’t add to the mix? Could it be they don’t want to share the data with the public? I have heard from some emails on the crimes in Concord post that the Concord Police Dept. has a difficult time sharing this type of information with the public for a number of reasons. I can understand not wanting to have a community in fear but keeping the information locked up and then reading about armed robberies in the city from other sources does not make me feel any safer about the local police serving the public.
I can tell you Concord Police is the only local agency that won’t post their crime statistics. They won’t also give arrest statistics. Crime in Concord is off the charts this and last year. Robberies in Concord will easily pass 300 this year. Concord Police have no plan to deal with it either!
-John
Is it the cost? A service like this can cost upwards of $199 a month. I’m not fully versed in the Concord budget to know if that is something the City of Concord could swing. I’d be willing to put in $10 of my own money a month to make it happen.
Is it the technology? Maybe the City does not have the technology to upload the data to the service. I’m sure there are ways to get it rolling and if CrimeReports has a online system that would need to replace the current infrastructure of the Police Dept. then there may be some pushback.
Regardless of the problems, I would like to find a collective solution where the residence of the city have full access to the historical crime data in the City of Concord on at least a weekly or monthly basis. I’ll stick to the other local bloggers to get the real time information from the scanners until I get my own. Is having an accessible crime log for the City of Concord too much to ask for?
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September 19th, 2008 at 10:42 am
The concord police are doing all they can. as a resident I would like to know whats going on in my area also but I don’t blame the police for this. I think the PD just doesnt want to give out all the information and spook the public. Not that this is the right answer but thats all I can assume that it is. The neighborhood CSO can give you statistics but not actual data so they can tell you if car thefts have increased but not exactly where they are happening.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I can’t speak directly about the CPD - I have very limited experience with them - but, back when I was the crime beat reporter for a daily paper in Berkeley, I got a very good look at how a police department works.
First of all, they are constantly understaffed or just on the edge. God forbid a massive crime wave should break out such as the one happening in Oakland with the takeover robberies - there’s no reliable way to police it. To be honest, I’m impressed it’s taken this long for such a crime wave to happen. Berkeley’s a little unique in that they have a stronger love-hate relationship with their citizenry than most other cities. When I reported there, they had two very high-profile watchdog agencies questioning their every move. Negative reports about the police department influence voters to turn down any extra taxes that would go toward helping boost the police department.
So, yeah, it;s highly likely that the reason CPD’s logs are not online yet probably has to do with the cost. Police officers do a TREMENDOUS amount of paperwork and getting all of that digitized is no simple task - you need to buy the equipment and software, customize it to their needs, train everyone on the staff and do this all while maintaining the old procedures until the new procedures are 100% in place and trusted. What with the mobile display terminals (MDTs) in each car and more computerization of dispatch, etc. they’re definitely moving toward that kind of a system, but it may be a while before everything is completely digitized. Until then, they’re still stuck with mostly paper reports.
One thing you should know, though, is that the police log is legally open for anyone to review. I haven’t come in to view CPD’s, but I went down to the BPD and flipped through the logs looking for stories at least once a week. A vast majority of the crimes committed are minor - noise complaints, small burglaries, missing pets, etc. - but then you start getting overwhelmed by the number of more serious offenses - drug dealers, robberies, burglaries, etc. You could very easily fill a newspaper with nothing but such crime stories every day, which is why the media only focuses on the larger or weirder crimes.
While I do believe a police blotter provides a public service, it’s not a small task to keep one current on a blog or newspaper. It requires a fairly dedicated reporter to rifle through the logs every day and diligently do the reporting. Eventually, all of this will no doubt be digitized, but until there’s tax money left over after providing enforcement training, purchasing new equipment and vehicles, hiring more officers and performing community services to try and reduce the amount of crime, I’d say digitizing the logs will probably remain on the backburner and squarely in the hands of a dedicated citizen willing to make the trip at least once a week to find the bigger stories and bring them to light.
Rob Z.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Excellent comment. I agree with most of your points. I didn’t want to post the numbers I went through about the number of police officers in Concord and the OVERWHELMING tasks they must be given. That’s why I made a point of not criticizing the line officers. With the number of police Concord has covering the entire city even with some support from the Sheriff’s Dept, they must be professional jugglers with everything going on.
Concord Blogger’s last blog post..Crime in Concord - No this isn’t Oakland
September 19th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Stop whining. If I’m going to rob houses and commit crimes, i’m not going to do it in my own city, i’ll go to Concord. You have no crime problems. come to my city and I’ll show you crime.
September 19th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
HAHAHAHA. I love the anon comments of hate. typically I would delete them but why?
Concord Blogger’s last blog post..Crime in Concord - No this isn’t Oakland
September 19th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Ignorance is bliss. CrimeReports looks like a great site.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
“While I do believe a police blotter provides a public service, it’s not a small task to keep one current on a blog or newspaper.”
If the information was available, it could just be posted on a newspaper website or as a pdf file like other departments do.
September 20th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
The Concord Transcript seems to be the most comprehensive of what gets out to the public.
September 21st, 2008 at 5:10 am
[...] of this talk about crime in Concord got me wondering. I started looking into police fire and emergency scanners and wondering if I [...]
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:10 pm
It’s just a shame that I have to read 3-4 different places what’s happening in my city. Some days I wish I was the Mayor, I’d make some changes.
Concord Blogger’s last blog post..Concord Police Fire and Emergency - Scanner Codes
September 24th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
well, to b honest wit u, while in the bacc of a police vehicle(lol) i was conversatin with an officer n he told me concord p.d. hides most of it’s information to promote concord as a “family city” so i’d take his word for it cuz like i said in my other posts, there are a lot more murders, aggravated assaults, robberies, so on and so forth than they actual post. just hang out around the detroit ave. monument blvd virginia ln area n ull know what im talkin about
October 3rd, 2008 at 6:17 am
The Concord police department has thrown it’s own citizens to the wolves. CPD doesn’t care what happens to us. They just sit around their substations and collect their fat salary and pensions. When was the last time they apprehended a violent crime suspect? I don’t know either!! Violent criminals that flee are allowed too because CPD is afraid to do their jobs!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 4th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Concord PD will not report much of the crime and arrests in the area because they do some of the best uncover work known to any police department, anywhere. So to report on it would be to blow their tactical undercover positions. Its called task force people and they do a great job!
November 4th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Hey John (last name removed), quit posting on here, you sound like a big baby. Go back to prop 36 where you belong, snitch.
November 12th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
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