Watsonville hires crime analyst to help reduce crime rate
On Tuesday, the Watsonville Police Department said it’s planning to crack down on a recent spike in crime by filling some new positions using a new revenue source.
A new crime analyst started this week and three new officers were recently hired with money promised by a half-cent sales tax starting this year.
The department said it has gone without a crime analyst for four years. The city is trying to recover from a period of high-crime and the money set to pour in from Measure G couldn’t be coming at a better time.
Crime Analyst Suzanne Fulton is armed with a bachelor’s degree in criminology and an advanced crime analysis certificate. That means she’ll sift through a lot of crime reports, find patterns and pinpoint problem areas in Watsonville
“I think it’s really just about becoming a proactive force so that we can get ahead of the crime instead of just reacting to what’s already occurred,” Fulton said.
Fulton said it’s her job to figure out how to make it easier for officers to do their jobs better.
“I will be looking at databases, I’ll generating Excel spreadsheets, reports for the officers, PowerPoint presentations to be used in court sometimes,” Fulton said.
She will work on developing new crime maps with information from crime trends.
“Right now we’re having a spike in vandalism, home and vehicle burglaries and obviously in violent crime and the community wants answers as to why it’s happening and where it’s happening, how we’re going to stop it,” said Lieutenant Saul Gonzalez.
Patrol officers are already designated to specific beats. But Fulton, a Central Coast native, will work side-by-side with Chief Manny Solano to determine how the department’s resources can be used more efficiently.
“Just kind of harmonize that together and work with the community. That’s something that we really want to foster is that relationship with the community, to realize that we’re not just a police presence in the community. We live here, we eat here, we work here as well,” Fulton said.
The money coming in from the half cent sales tax increase, passed by voters last June, will also pay for more police officers. Watsonville recently hired three and expects to hire nine more by next year.
