San Jose Mayor Responds To Recent Surge In Homicides
SAN JOSE (KCBS) - San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said his city is still safe, despite an increase in violence in the past few weeks.
"We've had times where we go months with no homicides and then we get the cluster of them," he reasoned. "It happens when we're dealing with numbers like twenty or thirty homicides per year."
KCBS' Chris Filippi Reports:
In 2010, San Jose recorded 20 homicides.
A weekend nightclub shooting pushed San Jose's homicide count to five, in just the first few days of 2011.
Three people died in that nightclub shooting, not long after a San Jose jewelry store owner died from injuries he sustained in a December confrontation with a robber.
The city's first homicide of the year was the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy, who was found early New Year's day.
Reed maintained that his city is safe, despite cuts to the San Jose Police Department. He also pointed out that the cost of adding additional officers has gone up by 100% over the past few years.
"I'm concerned about not having enough officers but our department does a great job even though we have one of the smallest per capita ratios of officers in the country and I'd like to have more officers, there's no doubt about that."
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