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Less overall crime, more deployable police officers and the return of special units such as the traffic unit in the coming year are just some of the highlights that former Interim Police Chief Gina Anderson touched on during last week’s biannual update to the Pleasanton City Council.
It was also the last time Anderson addressed the council after the city chose Foster City’s chief of police, Tracy Avelar, as the Pleasanton Police Department’s next police chief. Anderson first stepped in about seven months ago following the departure of former chief David Swing.
“It really has been just a great pleasure to be able to live out a little bit of a dream for me which was to have the opportunity to serve as the police chief in the city where I live,” Anderson said during the Dec. 3 meeting.
Anderson kicked off her presentation by reviewing the different crime trends over the past four years and showed that compared to the three-year average from 2021 to 2023, there were less overall crimes reported from January to September of the year.
“Based on the presentation … crime is down in Pleasanton and I am so, so proud to say that,” Mayor Karla Brown said.
According to Anderson’s presentation, the total crimes committed against a person — homicides, rapes and aggravated assaults — significantly went down when comparing 2024 to the three-year average, with the exception of robberies which in 2024 went up 18% when comparing to the average from 2021 to 2023.
Anderson said of the 28 robberies this year, 54% of them were either originally incidents of theft that escalated to robbery or were related to organized retail theft.
“There are two retail locations in our city that account for 43% of the robberies,” Anderson said.
While she did not name the specific retail locations, Anderson said that the department is working with staff at both of them to address these issues by stationing more plain-clothes officers there.
She also suggested that the city could look into entering into some sort of contract with those retail locations so that more officers can help because sending more units out takes time and resources away from the rest of the city.
The report also indicated there were four reports of rape in 2024 compared to 17 in 2023.
While there was a downward trend in many types of crimes this year, the city saw a slight increase in property crimes such as burglaries and auto thefts, Anderson said. According to her presentation, there were 120 burglaries this year — the three-year average from 2021 to 2023 was 117 — and 129 auto thefts. From 2021 to 2023, there had been an average of 104 auto thefts reported.
Anderson said the increase in auto theft is consistent with what is being seen regionally and nationally and that California is the state losing the greatest volume of vehicles in the country with the Bay Area also being one of the regions that has seen the highest volume of vehicle thefts in the country.
Despite increases in those property crime areas, the city still saw a 3% decrease overall in property crimes this year with a total of 983. The year before there were 1,167 total property crimes.
When combined, the total crimes reported in 2024 were 1,046 — the last time the city saw low crime numbers was in 2021 when there were a combined 950 crimes reported.
Anderson said while the PPD’s clearance rate on crimes decreased from 26% to 23%, the clearance rate for violent crimes was 40%.
The former interim police chief also touched on several highlights from the past year which included fully staffing the School Resource Officer unit and the Alternate Response Unit. Anderson pointed out that the Alternate Response Unit has continued to make strides in responding to calls for service. She said compared to 2020, when the PPD had 410 mental health commitments, this year they only committed 87 people.
“To reduce the 5150s and 5585s was … my focus and I’m so very proud that we’ve been so successful in doing that,” Councilmember Julie Testa said.
One of the key achievements Anderson also highlighted was the department’s steady shift back to being fully staffed.
She noted that this year, the PPD’s deployable sworn strength is 84% — last year it was 78%, which is why they had to collapse several units like special enforcement and traffic and SRO. But now, they only have two officer vacancies and one property and evidence technician vacancy, Anderson said.
She added that the department has five officers in the field officer training program, two in the academy and two more planning to join the academy. Because of that, Anderson said the PPD is projecting to have 91% of its deployable sworn officers by the first quarter of 2025, which means the department will be able to bring back its traffic and special enforcement units.
Anderson said one traffic officer is slated to return in January and three more slated to join the traffic unit by the middle of 2025. She also said with 12 officers ranging in ranks eligible for retirement this upcoming year, the city needs to continue prioritizing recruitment and hiring to avoid any future staffing shortages.
However, even amid all of the good news were a few points of concern brought up by some councilmembers.
Councilmember Valerie Arkin asked about the department’s response time goals of four minutes for emergencies and 20 minutes for non-emergencies to which Anderson said the PPD has been averaging 19 minutes for the latter, but for emergencies they have been hovering right above five minutes.
“It’s increased pretty steadily since 2020,” Anderson said.
She said it was mostly due to the lack of staffing in the past and that hopefully with more officers on the ground, they will be able to respond quicker. She also said that in the future, it might be wise to discuss the possibility of using technology such as drones to respond to crime scenes so that responding officers have a better plan of action.
The topic of technology also came up regarding the city’s 28 license plate reader cameras and how about a third of them are not currently working, according to PPD Capt. Kurt Schlehuber.
Anderson and Schlehuber said the department is currently working on a plan to bring forward to the council where they will decide if it’s best to keep the currently outdated cameras and just fix them or if they should invest in new cameras from a different vendor.
Anderson also said that in general, the City Council and the city can continue to help the department by not only maintaining competitive wages, but by also providing the necessary resources and training so officers can keep the community safe.
“The community’s expectations for the Pleasanton staff is high and so for us to be successful, we have to have the tools and equipment in order to do that,” Anderson said. “It really is demoralizing when you want to do your best but are unable to and then you are criticized for the fact that you can’t provide the service that is being demanded because you don’t have the equipment to do it.”
In other business
* After nearly 29 years of service, Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Chief Joe Testa officially began his retirement process during last week’s meeting.Â
The council unanimously approved a waiver to the state law requiring a 180-day waiting period before a retiree can reenter public employment so that Chief Testa could assume an interim fire chief title while the city looks for his permanent replacement.Â
His retirement is technically effective as of Dec. 9 but according to Xaviera Scoggins, Pleasanton’s director of human resources and labor relations, both city managers for Pleasanton and Livermore decided to appoint him as the interim chief effective Dec. 10.
“An interim fire chief is crucial as the position is critical to leading several key projects, maintaining adequate staffing for emergency response and negotiating emergency medicine services in other public safety services for the department,” Scoggins said. “During the interim appointment, Chief Testa will provide organizational stability and a smooth transition to the permanently appointed fire chief.”
As a retired annuitant, he will be limited to 960 working hours during the fiscal year and he would be paid an hourly rate of $137.03 while being ineligible for benefits, vacation leave or holidays.
* The council also unanimously accepted the first reading of an ordinance amending and replacing the city’s municipal code regarding tree preservation. The ordinance outlines penalty fees for removing trees, planting trees but not caring for them and other changes to the tree removal process.
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A hearty thanks to Interim Police Chief Anderson not only for her service, but also for a thorough and thoughtful presentation of this bi-annual report. It was clear that during her short time at the helm, she was truly engaged in the position and had a firm grasp of everything it entails.
Wishing her a pleasant retirement, we look forward to welcoming Chief Avelar as she leads the department forward facing the challenges of fiscal constraints. The prospect of having a nearly fully staffed department is an exciting one for those of us who live here and have come to expect Pleasanton as a place of safety. This report was a positive one indeed.