Crime down, chief says

Shortly after the Camp Fire—and an influx of 19,000 residents in the city of Chico—concerns of rising crime rippled through the community.

At a City Council meeting in March, Chico Police Chief Mike O’Brien delivered preliminary data exploring the issue, reporting that violent crime had spiked from November 2018 through January 2019 when compared with the same reporting period the year before.

Councilwoman Kasey Reynolds later indicated a public safety emergency declaration should be considered, and the council took on the discussion at its meeting Tuesday (June 18), when O’Brien dropped a bombshell: The overall crime rate in Chico has dropped 7 percent this year, and that includes decreases in both violent and property crimes.

“That is pretty remarkable … coming out of an increase of 19,000 people,” O’Brien told the council, adding, “I would be happy with just a slight increase, but having a decrease really demonstrates the hard work that your police department has been doing—really the community has been doing as well.”

The police chief delivered statistics comparing crime numbers from January through April 2019 with the same period last year. Violent crime was down 13 percent, and property crime was down 5 percent.

O’Brien cautioned that the numbers could change, but the trend is encouraging. He further focused on other issues of concern, including 2017 data from the California Opioid Overdose Surveillance Dashboard—a collaboration among several state agencies—that showed Butte County was a state leader in opioid hospitalizations and prescriptions. Additionally, the chief delivered stats showing that a small number of people have racked up up a large number of arrests. A multifaceted approach to solving both problems, he said, is needed.

The crime numbers appeared to quell any desire to declare a public safety emergency. Reynolds said she did not know how moving forward with such a designation would influence city staff to work any harder or differently. She said, however, that public safety should remain a top priority for the council.

Mayor Randall Stone lauded the police chief’s report, reiterating that an initial spike in crime following the fire did not result in a trend.

Despite the news, the tone of the discussion remained serious. Councilman Karl Ory said the city is one recession away from laying off police officers and firefighters. Further discussion regarding the city’s revenues is needed, he added, and that should include the consideration of a public safety tax. Until such time, he said, the council will continue to have feel-good discussions about decreasing crime rates when “we know that people are fearful in the city.”

Dan Herbert, Chico State’s director of off-campus student services, said he represented the university and told the council that the city must maintain public safety as a priority. There have been 11 shootings in neighborhoods surrounding the campus over the last two semesters, he said, including an incident that left one student wounded.

“When parents, families, find out that their children are being shot in our streets, we need to recognize that there’s no other item that we can discuss as a community that tops public safety,” he said.

Herbert, a former Chico city councilman and mayor, said the university is an economic engine for the city and must also contribute to any solutions. But it would take only one article from a major regional newspaper such as the San Francisco Chronicle or the Los Angeles Times describing Chico as the “Wild West” before the school starts losing students and the city begins to feel the effects.

The council voted unanimously to send the public safety discussion to the city’s Internal Affairs Committee, which will review safety-related topics and develop options for the council to consider.

Earlier in the meeting, the panel took on the city’s housing crunch, approving amendments to the municipal code regarding accessory dwelling units (ADUs)—such as so-called “granny units”—that eliminate a requirement for property owners to live on-site in either an ADU or primary home.

The issue had been studied in the wake of the fire, which has exacerbated the city’s already low housing availability. Stone said the removal of the owner-occupancy requirement for ADUs is needed.

“This is sweet-spot housing,” he said. “This is for low-income residents. One and two bedrooms, maybe threes, in our existing infrastructure.”

Vice Mayor Alex Brown, who said she resides in an ADU, supported the move, saying it addresses availability problems for populations such as young professionals and other people who cannot afford to buy a home. “I think we need to do everything to empower that type of housing.”

During public comment, resident Rob Berry told the council that eliminating the owner-occupancy requirement was the wrong move. He said the biggest problems with rental properties include maintenance, aesthetic and nuisance issues. Without a landlord on-site, the surrounding neighborhood suffers.

The move does not affect the West Avenues neighborhood area, which already had a special permitting process for ADUs because of infrastructure and density concerns there. That didn’t go unnoticed by Reynolds, who, along with Councilman Sean Morgan, voted against removing the owner-occupancy requirement.

“I think if you remove the owner-occupancy requirement you will soon have neighborhoods that look like [the West Avenues neighborhood], and you’ll wish you had not done it,” Morgan said.

In approving the amendments, the council also tasked the city’s housing committee with exploring extra protections, enforcement ideas and ways to increase landlord accountability.