Police partnership with community essential in Pleasant Hill
PLEASANT HILL, CA (June 27, 2024) — This month, I’d like to talk about public safety – how important it is and what a valuable job our Pleasant Hill Police Department does for the community.
This year has been marred by a pair of incidents that led to loss of life here. A Pleasant Hill Recreation and Park District employee was attacked in the early morning hours after completing his shift. Then, a long-time resident was attacked while exiting his work van at home in a robbery attempt that led to a shootout.
Both those crimes led to a lot of questions from residents about the safety of the community and the ability of PHPD to keep us safe. Despite these two outliers, Pleasant Hill is a safe city and our police department does an outstanding job. PHPD is filled with men and women dedicated to law enforcement and ensuring the safety of our community.
In each of the cases, police detectives were able to piece together the evidence, find the culprits responsible and put the suspects in jail. In addition to getting these criminals off the streets, making those arrests provided closure to the friends and family grieving the loss of a loved one.
Looking at the numbers
For those who feel that crime is on the rise, I would point you to the figures provided by Police Chief Scott Vermillion that I shared at the Mayor’s Breakfast. The reality is that most crime in the city has fallen from fiscal year 2022 to 2023. The exception is shoplifting, which PHPD has been stepping up its efforts to combat, with special details aimed at catching the thieves.
It is an unfortunate fact of the times in which we live that there is a section of the community that does not have the same faith that I do in our police department and law enforcement professionals. I strongly encourage you to take the time to get to know our police department and how they operate. Understanding the strictures that they have to operate under and the ways in which they do an extremely difficult job can go a long way to building trust and confidence.
Building relationships
Here are some ways to learn more about our police department and building those relationships:
Chief’s Advisory Panel: CAP is a body of community members who live, work and/or attend school in Pleasant Hill. CAP serves as a resource for PHPD in working with the community to identify best practices, improve transparency and build engagement with residents. They meet quarterly. CAP is accepting applications for members through the month of June. For more information, go to www.pleasanthillca.org/cap.
National Night Out: One of the best opportunities to meet and get to know your Pleasant Hill police officers is to come to City Hall 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6, for National Night Out. Communities across the country get together with their local police during National Night Out as a way of building bonds. In Pleasant Hill, officers will be on hand for a BBQ, demonstrations of the drone and K9 units, tours of emergency vehicles, kids activities and more. To learn more about National Night Out, contact Investigations at 925-288-4630.
In addition, members of our police department attend numerous public events each year and are always available to say hello.
As a City Council, public safety is one of our highest priorities. We strongly believe that a solid community/police partnership is the bedrock to achieving that goal.
Contact Matt Rinn at Mrinn@pleasanthillca.org.