The Issues: Robberies Up, City Treasury Down, What To Do?

A recent surge in robberies in Hercules has prompted residents to question their overall safety. With police layoffs pending, how do you plan to make Hercules a safer, more secure city?

Virgil de la Vega

To make Hercules a safer, more secure city in spite of impending police layoffs, the community must be actively involved as the police’s partner. This requires schools, businesses, neighborhoods, city hall and police all work together for a common objective. We can organize and join neighborhood programs that teach how to protect ourselves, our families, and our properties. If a neighborhood works together, it can get the criminals off its blocks and out of its areas. The city should have clear data on what the issues are, where they occur, and what’s causing them.  The city should learn from other cities’ best practices in order to use the limited police resources effectively.  Most importantly the city’s leadership must show its serious, hands-on commitment to keeping the city safe and secure.  It must be tough on crime and equally tough on the causes of crime.

If reductions in sworn personnel are necessary, the City should consider other actions, including the possibility of sharing a Chief of Police with the City of Pinole to reduce the number of layoffs.  We already share dispatch with Pinole, and if necessary, we should discuss a shared police force for both cities. 

Another discussion should be held regarding the possibility of contracting with the Contra Costa County Sheriff for our police services.  The Sheriff provides contract services for many cities in Contra Costa County now and a contract could be tailored to meet our needs and desires. 

Ultimately, police will always be the largest part of the General Fund budget, and that is because public safety is a core function of our City.  It should be a Council responsibility to  make sure that Hercules remains a safe place to live. 

Additional programs, such as "Neighborhood Watch" should be encouraged throughout the City.   The citizens of Hercules need to take better care of our parks, to reduce the ongoing issue with copper theft and vandalism.  In review of the police logs, it is easy to note that a great number of our police problems come from outside the City.  We can cure some of the problems by keeping our eyes on our neighborhoods and our parks and make it obvious that we are being vigilant.   

Sherry McCoy

The city needs to work with citizens to establish and strengthen Neighborhood Watch programs partnering the police with local groups, home owners associations and citizens to ensure our city remains safe and secure. We need, as a community, to work together proactively to get to know our neighbors and neighborhoods and be aware of our surroundings. Working together, as neighbors, neighborhood groups, HOAs, with the police and other groups, we can work to ensure a safe and secure city. Organizations in other cities and nationwide can help provide models for a program in Hercules. 

Hercules finds itself in the predicament of a lot of growing cities.  The combination of our growth, increased Bay Area visibility and frankly, a suffering economy encourages unwanted outsiders. Unfortunately, we have to deal with the reality of our financial situation and accept that in the near future, we cannot buy our way to safety.  All citizens must take responsibility for our overall safety. We need to focus on the natural allies we have that support public safety – neighborhood watches, emergency preparedness, and public health awareness.  We need to utilize the groups we have already in place, such as our faith, service, business and social organizations.  We must recognize where we have common ground and identify actions we can all support that promote and maintain public security. I believe that we need to identify our existing assets and find creative ways to use them.  I want to help our city recognize opportunities for community collaboration, that specifically address community safety and point out that our most significant asset is our potential to work together as a community to support and protect the community. The purpose is not to replace our first responders, but to make us all more aware of neighborhood norms and abnormal behavior.  Intruders are often strategic in how they determine who and what to victimize.  The perception of indifference can be attractive to criminals.  Neighbors working together and with the police force can demonstrate a presence of awareness and lessen the perception that persons and neighborhoods are easy marks. Establishing neighborhood watch groups is not difficult, but it does require commitment.  It can work and provides a host of other residual benefits to our community, including instilling in our children a concern for neighbors and community.

Dan Romero
Has not responded to questionnaire as of May 6. 

More crimes are expected when the economy is not good. Hercules is a relatively safe city, and every police officer will tell you this is thanks to their work, and I agree. They perform very well in spite of a small numbers of officers compared to other cities (1.2 officers/1,000 residents). Statistics form our PD shows a 15% increase in crime from last year. HPD is one the main core services we must keep strong. HPD will represent about 70% of our next budget. If the General Fund budget requires cuts in the HPD, I will make sure we consider all options instead of cutting the number of our officers.

What options would I consider? Sharing Chief with Pinole, CalPERS and Health plan coverage to be partially paid by HPD, or even asking the County Sheriff to take care of the PD management. The last thing I will consider is to layoff officers, we need them. I believe other cuts/outsourcing should be done in “non core” services before we touch the HPD.

Joanne Ward

Since the city of Hercules is experiencing a surge in robberies, it is very important that all residents be more vigilent in their own neighborhoods. In other words, we all need to assist the Hercules Police Department by keeping a watchful eye out for suspicious activity and/or suspicious behavior. Each of us has a feeling for what normally takes place in and around our own homes; therefore, we can all assist our police department by being more watchful and reporting the presence of strange vehicles and/or unusual behavior before any illegal activity occurs. I believe that by working together, we can all help the Hercules Police Department make Hercules a safer, more secure place at a time when the city's smaller budget does not allow us to add additional sworn staff.

Don Kuehne

I believe that public safety should continue to be a top priority in Hercules. Reductions in the police department have been done mainly through voluntary retirement and layoff of office and part-time employees. There has been only a slight reduction in the number of patrol officers. Citizens can help make our city safer by reporting any suspicious or illegal activity.