A once quietly prosperous city in California’s bay area has been gripped by a crime wave.
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program has named the city of Vallejo, just 30 miles outside San Francisco, as having one of the highest crime rates in the state.
The problem has become so bad that frustrated residents have started a petition pleading with Governor Gavin Newsom to increase the police presence in the area.
‘As a resident of Vallejo, I am deeply concerned about the safety of my community. Vallejo is currently experiencing an alarming increase in crime rates,’ Paula Conley, 55, wrote in a petition addressing the escalating crime in her hometown.
The city with a population of just 123,000 has seen a twofold increase in property crimes in the last four years, according to the FBI’s Real-Time Crime Index.
But between 2014 to 2024, violent crimes remained steady – until they exploded at the start of 2024.
Vallejo had a staggering 23 murders, 12 fatal traffic incidents, 44 rapes, 86 sexual assaults, 503 aggravated assaults, 1,101 auto burglary/theft cases, 200 shootings and 352 domestic violence cases by November, according to Vallejo Police reports.
And locals say that in the last two months of the year, those numbers only increased.
On Christmas Eve, a public works crew discovered a human limb sticking out of a bag of construction debris at an alleged illegal dumping site, Open Vallejo reported.
And to mark Vallejo’s most violent year ever, a New Year’s Eve shooting left one person dead and brought up the city’s 25th homicide in 2024.
Deaths during the year included Damien Davis, 34, who was shot dead on Sonoma Boulevard and Louisiana Street in July. In October, another man was found dead in the middle of the road Daniels Avenue, near Sacramento Street.
In late November, the city’s 22nd and 23rd murders were confirmed when police discovered two men fatally shot at the scene of a car crash.
‘Drug crime, shootings and shoplifting are increasingly commonplace. Prostitution on Sonoma Blvd/Hwy 29 in particular is rampant,’ Conley wrote in her petition that’s already had more than 3,500 signatures.
‘Our streets are dangerous to drive or walk along due to excessive speeding. Businesses and residents are unsafe due to slow or nonexistent police response times,’ she said.
Fearful for their safety and wellbeing in the place they call home, residents are now urging officials to act, asking for more police and quicker response times.
‘We believe that additional support from California Highway Patrol and Sheriff officers could significantly help address this issue. Their presence would not only bolster our local law enforcement capacity but also serve as a deterrent for potential criminals,’ Conley wrote.
Conley, who is just one of many advocates for the crime-riddled community, created the petition aimed at urging Newsom to ‘deploy CHP/Sheriff officers to Vallejo.’
‘I started the petition. I tried working with our city, tried to get answers and everything, I talked to the county and I mean, who else can we go to? Let’s go the Governor, right?’ Conley said in an interview with FoxNews Digital.
‘CHP does come when they can. The Sheriff does come when they can. But its not on a consistent basis, its when they have time,’ she added.
The 55-year-old Vallejo resident also noted that after a ‘surge of officers’ were sent to Oakland – a city just 25 miles south of Vallejo – the city’s crime rates ‘went down and their quality of life got better’.
She also claimed that Vallejo has ‘the exact same problems Oakland does’ but that Vallejo is ‘just a smaller city.’
Conley added that the distressing crime Vallejo is seeing is a product of ‘poor leadership’ and ‘lack of urgency’ in handling the ongoing crime crisis.
‘At some point, somebody has to help us,’ she pleaded.
But despite their pleas, Newsom has refused to offer any additional police support.
‘I want the folks in Vallejo to know you’re not getting the [California Highway Patrol] to do the work of local law enforcement,’ Newsom said at a news conference in early January.
‘They think somehow the state is going to come in and provide the support for free.’
Newsom, who’s been California’s governor since 2019, directed the CHP to expand its presence in Vallejo to help address understaffing there.
However, he also wants to see the city’s police department fill vacant positions by contracting with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office for services.
The Vallejo Police Department, Vallejo Mayor Robert McConnell and members of the Vallejo City Council have previously asked the governor for ‘law enforcement support.’
‘We don’t have infinite resources as the California Highway Patrol to go in and take over police responsibilities,’ CHP Deputy Commissioner Ezery Beauchamp said at the conference.
CHP last year carried out law enforcement surges in San Francisco, Oakland, San Bernardino and Bakersfield, however, Newsom said that help would not be ‘open-ended’.
While the CHP will not commit to a full-scale surge in Vallejo, Beauchamp said CHP officers had begun assisting Vallejo police in a limited capacity.
The officers had made 32 arrests, 600 traffic stops and assisted with 40 incidents since July, he said.
But, for some residents, this is not enough.
‘How many more lives need to be lost or harmed before the governor takes action? I’m grateful for the neighboring CHP and other officers from nearby counties who are stepping up, but we need to improve the situation, and it doesn’t appear to be happening,’ one resident commented on the petition.
Another wrote: ‘I have been here 39 years and the determination of this once beautiful city is so disheartening. We need help, we need leadership, we want our city back!’
‘I’ve lived in Vallejo for years! I’ve been shot at four times seen our house get destroyed my sideshows here in Vallejo! I’ve seen people getting robbed at gun point it’s out of hand! Vallejo needs more help!’ another urged.
The city has a long history of crime, dating back to the 1960s when an alleged serial killer terrorized the area, responsible for at least five known murders in the Bay Area between 1968 and 1969.
The individual, credited as the Zodiac Killer, claimed, via cryptic messages sent to newspapers, to have committed 37 serial murders.
Investigators have since agreed on seven confirmed assault victims, five of whom died and two of whom survived.
Between July 4 and 5, 1969, two Zodiac victims Michael Renault Mageau, then-19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, then-22, were shot around midnight in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo.
While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead at Kaiser Foundation Hospital.
Despite extensive investigations, no one was ever apprehended or prosecuted for the heinous crimes due to insufficient evidence, leaving the case unsolved.
However, investigators did identify a prime suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen, who died in 1992 at 58 from arteriosclerotic heart disease.