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Shasta Crime Stats

Bail bonds are very much in demand in Shasta County, as the crime rate is nearly double the state’s average.

California has seen greater increases year-over-year when compared to Shasta County, but locally the crime rates are much higher than the average in the state, all according to a recent release of the crime data.

Law Enforcement Concern

All of this data doesn’t come as a surprise to law enforcement officers, as they’ve been campaigning for some time to increase the number of police officers on the streets. As of yet, the country hasn’t obliged this request at all.

Simply put, the officers feel like they need more funding and resources put into place in order to more effectively handle the issue of crime in the county. Until those resource needs are met, it remains up in the air just how these issues of crime will be solved, if at all.

The county as a whole, including Redding, has seen double the number of violent crimes when compared to the state and adjusted for population.

Property and Violent Crimes

The California Department of Justice recently released the numbers for property and violent crimes and have shown that these crimes have increased slightly over the last five years.

Statewide, the numbers are sitting at 426 violent crimes for 100,000 people in 2015, while that number for Shasta County was 680 for 100,000 people. Property crimes were about 20 percent higher locally than the state average shows. In Redding alone, that difference climbs to nearing on three-quarters.

In Redding, violent crime increased only slightly over the course of a year, but property crimes increased by quite a bit. The police chief there said it’s because of a move to reclassify certain felonies as misdemeanors and the push that addicts will have to fuel their addiction, leading to the theft of property. Having more cops on the street would help curb this problem, the police chief insists.

Another way that this can be affected is by investing in more jail beds as well as treatment for mental health issues and addiction. If these things are treated as diseases instead of criminalized, we’ll see a great reduction in crime.

These resources are expected to come through a half-cent sales tax which can add $11 million to public coffers in order to build more jail space, hire more firefighters and police officers, and help establish a mental health facility and sober center.

The jail bed space is set up to punish criminals for their actions, but this is undone when the criminals reach capacity in how many criminals they can hold which results in criminals being released early and a variety of other problems.

All of this results in prisoners believing (rightly so) that there’s no real consequence for their actions, which will lead to recidivism as career criminals simply keep getting put in prison only to be let out again.

Not only does this affect the law enforcement community, but it also affects the community at large. People will be far less likely to move into a neighborhood that’s stricken with a crime, and businesses will be less likely to start their business there as well.

Some are calling for residents and law enforcement officials to make public the fact that they’re cutting down on crime and that there are plenty of positive aspects to the city as a whole. Once people start doing that, it’s widely believed that Redding and Shasta County as a whole will thrive and rebound from the crime statistics that have so long plagued them.

While the issue of crime in Redding and Shasta County is troubling, it’s not as if these problems can’t be solved. It will take some buckling down and sacrifice, but this can be done. By raising up the half-cent sales tax, that alone will help to reduce crime and increase the number of police officers and help other necessary actions as well.

Instead of taking a pessimistic attitude, those in the know in regards to the area insist that residents and law enforcement officials push to people the message that crime is not tolerated in the area and that there are plenty of positive aspects of the city already as it is.
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