San Jose Police Struggling To Solve Home Burglaries With Fewer Detectives
SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) -- Home burglaries continue to plague San Jose but only a small percentage of those cases every get solved.
In the last two weeks alone, burglaries hit 91 homes in San Jose. That averages out to over 400 break-ins a month, or about 5,000 cases a year.
But only 5 percent of those cases get solved. By comparison, San Francisco last year saw roughly the same amount of burglaries. Its solve rate -- 14 percent -- is about three times of San Jose's.
"What I would like to say to the residents out there is that we are doing everything we can with the resources that we have," said Lt. Paul Messier.
His burglary team has only one full-time detective who works four days a week.
Back in 2008, the unit had seven full-time detectives. They used to fill most of one floor, but now the department is mostly empty.
"We have had to supplement our unit tremendously to keep our heads above water," Messier said.
They've borrowed a detective from the missing children's unit and are asking some officers to work overtime. They're also using community service officers, or CSO's, to take reports and collect evidence.
"When it comes to burglaries," Messier said, "you have to remember burglaries are kind of second to violent crime."
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said he knows the city needs more police officers, but that it will take time.
"We're going to get officers out there just as fast as we can, but there's no timeline in this world," he said. "We've got every single major city in this country desperately seeking to hire officers."
In the meantime, Messier said citizens will have to wait a bit before a police officer comes to their door to take a report. "But they will eventually come," he said.
The police department said to really be effective it needs 20 full-time detectives to close cases. It realizes borrowing officers from other units is only a temporary fix.
Best bet as a resident is to get surveillance video, those cases always take priority, in addition to investing in a good safe to bolt to the ground.
