The California Highway Patrol will expand its presence into another Bay Area city to combat crime, weeks after a petition started by a resident urged state leaders to deploy officers to combat crime amid a local police staffing shortage.
Car sideshows, where people show off their vehicles and often perform dangerous stunts in vacant lots and public intersections, as well as drug crime, shootings and shoplifting, have made life in the enclave of Vallejo much more dangerous, resident Paula Conley wrote in a petition posted on Change.org.
Conley and other residents urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to deploy California Highway Patrol officers to Vallejo in similar fashion to how the governor sent CHP officers to Oakland earlier in 2024 to address a crime surge there.
“We started seeing their (crime) statistics go down and their quality of life get better and getting a better handle on crime,” Conley told Fox News Digital. “We have the exact same problems Oakland does, but we’re just a smaller city. It’s going to take manpower to really help us.”
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“We’re not asking for it lightly. This has just been a crisis situation for a very long time. Our leadership still has no urgency in handling it and at some point, somebody has to help us,” she added.
In her petition, Conley wrote that deploying CHP officers and Solano County sheriff’s deputies to Vallejo could help address crime, serve as a deterrent to potential criminals and provide support to an overworked police force.
CHP Deputy Commissioner Ezery Beauchamp told reporters at a news conference in Oakland last week that the agency has assisted the Vallejo Police Department since July, making 600 traffic enforcement stops and making 32 arrests.
CHP leaders have met with Solano County Sheriff Thomas Ferrara and the agency is “committed” to working with Vallejo Interim Police Chief Jason Ta “to help combat sideshows and illegal street racing that is plaguing the community,” said Beauchamp.
Newsom acknowledged the request for a CHP presence in Vallejo last week but said city leaders have to ultimately address the police staffing woes.
“I just want the folks in Vallejo to know you’re not getting the CHP to do the work of local law enforcement,” he said. “They think somehow, ‘Well, the state’s going to come in and provide this support for free’. They have a lot of vacant positions… and instead of contracting, for example, with the sheriff’s office and the county, they’re hoping to get the state to do it for free. We’re not going to be in that business.”
Newsom added that “we are in the business of support. You see what we’re doing in Vallejo. We’re supporting them.”
Conley agreed that Vallejo authorities need to address police staffing issues.
“Just like Oakland’s police need to do their part in running their department correctly, so does Vallejo. That’s a big component of why we are in this state of decline and I agree with the governor on that responsibility,” she told Fox News Digital. “Our city can’t expect anyone else to save our situation but to give us the support to gain control in the rebuilding process.”
In September, the governor signed emergency legislation to allow retired Solano County sheriff’s deputies to return to the force full-time to help meet Vallejo’s public safety needs. The Vallejo Police Department currently has only 75 officers out of 129 available positions, Vallejo police Sgt. Rashad Hollis told Fox News Digital.
Vallejo City Manager Andrew Murray said that the city was aware of Conley’s petition.
“We respect and appreciate our community’s right to voice their concerns and welcome ongoing dialogue about public safety in Vallejo,” Murray said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital by the Vallejo Police Department and city leaders when asked to comment on the matter. “The Mayor, City Council and I have also sent recent requests for law enforcement support to the Governor, State and regional agencies.”
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Rebuilding the beleaguered police department is a top priority but more needs to be done, acknowledged Murray. The department coordinates daily with neighboring law enforcement agencies, he said.
The Solano County Sheriff’s Office responds to certain calls in Vallejo to assist local authorities, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Rex Hawkins. The sheriff’s office is in the process of submitting a service proposal to the city of Vallejo, he said.
If approved, “a contract for services will be submitted and when the contract is signed, the process of building a law enforcement response will take place,” Hawkins told Fox News Digital.
Some Vallejo residents have cited the lack of police officers for the decrease in quality of life.
As of Dec. 27, the city experienced 24 murders in 2024, up from 21 in the same time period last year, according to police data. Rapes and larceny were up as well. Vehicle break-ins and thefts, as well as assaults and robberies, were slightly down.
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Scott, a Vallejo resident who declined to provide his last name over fears of repercussions from local criminals, told Fox News Digital he’s seen the city suffer an overall decline since relocating more than two years ago from San Francisco, where he lived for two decades.
“We have issues with drug houses and prostitution out in the open,” he said. “The criminal elements, they just come to the city and they take advantage of the fact that there are so few police.”
“San Francisco is way safer than Vallejo. I can walk around San Francisco late at night. Vallejo, I will not walk around at night. The criminal activity is too much,” Scott, 54, added. “The media likes to pick on San Francisco. There’s no comparison.”
Vallejo city leaders declared a police staffing emergency in July, which gave the police chief and Murray, the city manager, powers to address the issue, including seeking assistance from the sheriff’s office and the CHP.
Murray said progress was being made to address police staffing levels, but that “we recognize there is more work ahead.”
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“The Vallejo Police Department collaborates daily with our neighboring law enforcement agencies, and we are grateful for their consistent mutual aid support,” he said. “As we continue to rebuild, we remain open to exploring additional formalized police service support that enhances public safety for our community.”
Deploying more CHP officers to Vallejo would come months after Newsom had the state agency send officers in February to Oakland to address crime, including vehicle and organized retail theft and violent crime.
“As crime rates across California decrease — including right across the Bay in San Francisco — Oakland is seeing the opposite trend,” Newsom said at the time. “What’s happening in this beautiful city and surrounding area is alarming and unacceptable. I’m sending the California Highway Patrol to assist local efforts to restore a sense of safety that the hardworking people of Oakland and the East Bay demand and deserve.”
In July, the governor announced that he would quadruple the number of shifts CHP officers conduct in the city after CHP’s recovery of over a thousand stolen cars, seizure of 55 guns linked to crimes and the arrest of 562 suspects in the East Bay since February.
Newsom announced last week that CHP would remain in Oakland for an additional month to boost the law enforcement presence there. He also criticized local leaders for not changing a policy that limits police pursuits of fleeing criminals, despite him asking them to over the summer, saying “they had a chance and they didn’t do it.”
Vallejo lies roughly 25 miles south of Oakland.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Newsom’s office referred to a CHP statement highlighting CHP’s work in Vallejo.
“The CHP is present and active in Vallejo and will continue to work with community stakeholders, including its police department, to ensure that its community is safe and protected,” CHP Sgt. Andrew Barclay said.
CHP has contacted Ta, the interim Vallejo police chief, regarding law enforcement assistance to help bolster the police presence in the area, CHP said. Units from CHP’s Solano area office have been advised to assist on Vallejo streets when free or in the area, Barclay said.
In response to ther petition, much of the feedback has been positive, said Conley, who cited her frustration for why she created it in the first place.
“I’ve tried working with our city and tried to get answers and everything, and I’ve talked to the county. I’m like ‘Well, who else can we go to?’ Let’s go to the governor,” she said. “I’ve never done a petition. This is all new to me. There’s a lot of apathy in our city because things have been bad for a long time and they kind of stay that way.”
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