Crime is the bottom it’s been in additional than a decade in a single West Valley metropolis.
Cupertino had 741 reported legal incidents in 2024, the bottom quantity in 12 years, in accordance with town’s crime dashboard. The commonest crime class was identification theft, forgery and fraud with 169 situations, adopted by grand theft and automotive burglaries with 111 and 106 situations, respectively. The opposite greater than 300 crimes embody 79 industrial and 71 dwelling robberies, 54 situations of vandalism and 29 stolen automobiles, amongst others.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Workplace took six minutes on common to answer high-priority emergency calls, larger than its purpose of 5 minutes, which officers attribute to a number of calls without delay. The sheriff’s workplace serves Cupertino, which doesn’t have its personal police division.
Crime in Cupertino between 2012 and 2024 peaked in 2019 when town had 1,112 reported incidents, together with 464 automotive thefts, 121 dwelling robberies and 102 instances of identification theft, forgery and fraud. Automotive burglaries have been town’s top-ranking crime over time at 2,835 incidents, in accordance with the dashboard. Id theft, forgery and fraud instances have elevated, going from 102 in 2019 to 169 final yr.
Sgt. Russell Davis, spokesperson for the sheriff’s workplace, credit the general downward development to packages the workplace runs, together with dozens of neighborhood watch teams it helps. The sheriff’s workplace additionally analyzes developments and hotspots to find out areas deputies ought to prioritize.
Davis stated the division encourages residents to report incidents even when they’re uncertain if against the law is going on as a result of it might be a lifesaving resolution.
“We always tell (people), if the hairs on your neck feel like they’re standing up, give us a call,” he informed San José Highlight. “It doesn’t hurt.”
Though crime citywide has decreased, it performed a big function in final yr’s Cupertino Metropolis Council elections. Profitable candidates Vice Mayor Kitty Moore and Councilmember R “Ray” Wang ran a part of their campaigns on rising public security.
A graph of reported legal incidents in Cupertino between 2012 and 2024 from town’s crime dashboard.
Wang stated residents informed him public security was a high precedence. He met with crime victims together with folks robbed at an ATM. He helps Proposition 36, which creates harsher punishments for some drug and theft crimes. It was authorised by 68.4% of voters statewide.
Wang stated town wants to enhance its neighborhood watch packages to assuage residents’ issues about public security.
“It’s good to see that stats are going down, but there’s also a belief that there’s a lot of crimes that are unreported, and that’s what worries people,” he informed San José Highlight.
Cupertino resident Orrin Mahoney, who’s lived within the metropolis for about 56 years, is a block chief of his neighborhood. He stated he hasn’t seen a big distinction in crime over time, and that the sheriff does a very good job holding crime low.
“(Public safety) is also definitely as much a citizen thing (as a police thing),” he informed San José Highlight. “People here expect crime to be low and therefore I think expectations breed results, as far as support for the police department, obviously, and reporting crimes right away.”
Neighboring cities are monitoring their reported crimes too, together with San Jose. The San Jose Police Division final yr launched a dashboard breaking down crime statistics by council district.
Davis stated the purpose of the sheriff’s workplace is to enhance service throughout the entire area.
“Although we’re at the 10-year low, it doesn’t stop us from doing the proactive work by keeping the community safe and keeping those light stats even lower than they were before,” he stated.
This story initially appeared in San José Highlight.
