Communities Must Band Together to Fight Crime (SB Sun 081806) Our View: Reginal Approach needed to confront recent upsurge in violence

This might be the only way to clean up the neighborhood, so they must ban together to clean up the neighborhood and they can get to together and work with their Police Agencies can do multi-Agency work to clean up their neighborhood. Another thing if they are serous is to combine their police department and make one large Metro Police Agency and they can combine their forces, that might be better over all for pay, raises, getting people hired and working within beats and what not. Something to think about.

There was a story not to long ago that they were talking about the Sheriff department for San Bernardino County being the only Agency in the whole county. So there would be one Metro Police agency and they would combine all the pay and raises, and their union would be stronger because they were much bigger agency and all. IT would be something to think about, but there still is the stats that the Rialto Police Department have against the San Bernardino Sheriff Department Regarding the over all Reduction of Crime. The stats are this Rialto police Homicide clears up approximately 91% of their cases, when the Sheriff Department clears only 68% of their cases, or something like that, You will have to excuse me because I am doing this from memory and my memory is not that great. The combining the Communities is a great Idea, but they should think about combining their Police Agencies as well too!! something to think about. weird thoughts since we just did the whole battle to save the Rialto Police Agency. so it would be better to exchange information and see which agency is better at cleaning up their part..

BSRanch

Communities Must Band Together to Fight Crime
Our View: Reginal approach needed to confront recent upsurge in violence

The peace and quiet, and respite from the violence that has rocked the region, lasted about a month and a half. And then, four people were slain last weekend in San Bernardino, Fontana, Yucaipa and Redlands.

The gunshots shattered San Bernardino's longest stretch this year without a homicide. Twenty-one-year-old Joshua Joell Stanton of Rialto became San Bernardino's 35th homicide victim this year killed in an apparent gang-related drive-by shooting.

Also down are a 19-year-old Fontana woman shot dead in her car. A Yucaipa man shot dead in his apartment. And a Redlands teen shot dead in a park in Redlands.

The latter death is particularly striking in a community that rarely sees homicides, much less violence in one of its parks.

Yet the randomness of the weekend's homicides is a sharp reminder that crime is not confined to one place many communities besides San Bernardino are shaken by the threat. And it is going to take a regional awareness, and watchful communities, to get a grip on the problem.

The slaying of 16-year-old Adrian Valdovinos, in the restroom at Community Field Park in Redlands on Saturday night, is perhaps especially shocking in that it was apparently so unprovoked, so senseless.

Adrian's death has spurred concern in a community that has seen only two homicides this year. And it has Redlands Police Chief Jim Bueerrman on notice that the police crackdown in neighboring cities, particularly San Bernardino, could be driving crime into Redlands.

Bueermann says statistics show that it's largely nonresidents behind the city's recent uptick in crime. Even quiet Loma Linda, to the south of San Bernardino, has noticed a string of violent crimes lately. The city, which rarely sees a murder, robbery or sexual assault, has been hit by all three in the past few weeks.

And that has been the underlying concern that criminals scared out of one city, namely San Bernardino, might logically go elsewhere to evade arrest. It is, perhaps, the ugly nature of the beast that when one city has success at curbing crime, at least for awhile, surrounding cities must fear whether they're next on the list for trouble.

Crime knows no boundaries, after all. And criminals, by their nature, are transient folks, moving often to stay one step ahead of the law.

Then, there are the ubiquitous gangs, which are migrating eastward along with the region's expanding population. The gangs that threaten San Bernardino aren't just San Bernardino's problem to tackle, many are realizing.

So, as surrounding communities share the grief when killers cross their threshold, it is becoming painfully obvious that crime prevention and intervention programs are needed as much as more police officers.

Squelching the crime in one community won't kill it off completely. Communities need to do their part in steering troubled youths away from a criminal lifestyle. Programs that go to the heart of the violence and seek to avert it are an important part of the solution for all communities.

A regional approach is vital as criminals are displaced. Local communities must come together and work toward improving neighborhoods and residents' well-being for there to be public safety.