Cash-Strapped SJPD Won't Respond To All Burglar Alarms
SAN JOSE (KCBS) – Starting January 1st, San Jose police will no longer respond to unverified burglary alarms, simply because they don't have the man-power.
"We're at 1,100 officers right now, whereas as little as three or four years ago we had 1,400 officers," said San Jose Police spokesman Jason Dwyer.
He said that the majority of home burglary alarm calls turn out to be false anyway.
"We had 12,450 alarm calls in 2010, and 98.4 percent of those were false alarms," said Dwyer.
Nevertheless, homeowners in the area are dismayed.
KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:
"I'm sure they just announced this to all of the criminals and burglars. 'It's open season now,'" said one angry San Jose resident. "'You're welcome to come along because we're not going to have any police response to this.'"
However, police point to the fact that other cities who have implemented this policy, such as Fremont, have not seen a spike in burglaries.
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