Safety
A wave of gun violence in Richmond and North Richmond killed two people – including a 16-year-old boy – and left seven others injured in shootings spread across six different locations.
Violence marred Election Day in Richmond as four teens were shot in close proximity to one another on Tuesday night. Police say the shootings may be related.
Just before Thanksgiving last year, a UPS Store employee turned over a box containing about 5 lbs. of marijuana to Richmond police officer Joe Avila. But the marijuana he carried from the shop that afternoon was never booked into evidence at the precinct. According to a search warrant issued by the Contra Costa Superior Court in September, the drugs didn’t make it to the Richmond Police Department’s property vault, but ended up at Avila’s home in Oakley, 44 miles away.
A Richmond Police Department detective shot and wounded a man suspected of attempted burglary Thursday afternoon in the Pacific East Mall parking lot. The man was transported to the hospital with serious injuries but is expected to live, police said.
Richmond homicides have plummeted almost 70 percent over the last decade, and recent police data shows that the downward trend continues, with 12 homicides this year, the lowest in over three decades. Police and city officials credit community cooperation and outreach programs designed to help likely offenders.
Proposition 47, also known as the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act,” would downgrade six felony crimes, drug possession, grand theft, shoplifting, check forgery, receiving stolen property and writing bad checks.
There have been 12 homicides in Richmond thus far this year, not including a fatal shooting by a Richmond police officer that is still under investigation. In aggregate, that number is a promising statistic consistent with the decline in Richmond’s overall violent crime and the lowest homicide rate the city has seen in decades. But each red dot on the crime map represents a place where an individual was killed. They are homes, businesses, sidewalks, and street corners; Richmond residents…
The Richmond Police Department is interested in having all high school students in the city take an anonymous survey in which they could express their thoughts and feelings about local police.
The arrests and seizures were part of Operation Road Trip, a multi-agency, years-long effort led by California Department of Justice task forces, as well as federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Richmond Police Department.