Deterring Auto Burglaries in Vallejo, California

Like many communities, auto burglary is a widespread problem in Vallejo, a city of approximately 122,293 located in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to FBI UCR stats for 2016, the city of Vallejo had one of the highest rates of burglary and larceny in California for a city its size. In 2016, we saw 983 incidents per 100,000. Although this is not as severe a problem as in neighboring San Francisco, which has the highest rate of any major California city, the problem was growing, with an 11 percent increase in 2016.

During the 2017 holiday season, the Vallejo Police Department launched a crime prevention campaign titled HideitLockitTakeit, with the goal of reducing burglaries from automobiles. The campaign drew on the expertise of the department’s crime analyst and a partnership with BetaGov – a nonprofit research organization based at New York University that supports practitioner-led research. The campaign ran from November 8 through December 30 (holiday season) and resulted in a 40 percent decline in burglaries from autos compared to same time period the previous year.