Police will visit victims of minor crime

From Daily Republic // April 8, 2006
By Ian Thompson

SUISUN CITY - Suisun City residents will again get a police officer at their door to take reports if they are victims of minor property crimes or acts of vandalism, the Suisun City Police Department announced Friday.

The restored service is one result of the city's hiring of more police officers to bring the department back up to strength.

"This is the level of responsiveness our community deserves and that we expect as a professional organization," Suisun City Police Operations Commander Lt. Ed Dadisho said.

The move is part of more aggressive stance the police are taking now that they have the manpower.

"Any criminal activity is Suisun City in Suisun City is unacceptable and deserves the full and immediate attention of the police department," Dadisho said.

The visits patrol officers have done already has been received well by residents, Dadisho said.

Staffing and budget problems had forced the police to ask residents to come to the police department to self-report minor crimes where there were no injuries or immediately known suspects.

Having residents come in to report the crimes allowed the limited number of officers to focus their time on dealing with the city's more serious crimes, Dadisho said.

The police department is finishing hiring the officers it needs and is now working on ways to improve making Suisun City safer.

"Starting immediately, residents who call to report a crime to their person or property will be visited by a patrol officer," Dadisho said. "That's at the heart of our community policing activities."

Other cities, such as Vacaville, usually send out a community service officer to take reports on minor property crimes and vandalism.

If a CSO is not available, Vacaville will send out an officer if the resident feels that is necessary, according to Vacaville Police Lt. Craig Rossiter, but that could take time if the officers are busy on other calls.

Since last fall, Vacaville offered residents the option of doing on-line reporting through the police department page on the city's Web site.

Depending on city council support, the police department is also looking at possibly creating a two-man suppression unit and detailing officers to start staking out areas of town that have problems with home burglaries.

"There are a lot of things we can do with more staff," Dadisho said.

One other hope is working closer with the California Highway Patrol to undertake more auto theft stings, something the two agencies are already working together on.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.