Fremont’s veil on property crime

2–3 minutes

A rise in crime creates frustration for its residents

Staff Writer

Fremont is facing a significant rise in crime, with burglaries, vandalism, assaults, and theft becoming major concerns for residents and business owners.

Mayor Lily Mei, who campaigned on a promise to improve the safety of the city, said in an interview with Sri Sree Iyer, “When we’re going through a period of challenges for economics, you see a rise in general crime.” She applauded police officers and their efforts, lauding Fremont’s ranking as the “largest safe city in California for many years”; although, no organization has backed this claim.

According to police records, in 2023, Fremont’s aggregated crimes totaled 10,485—an increase of over 33% compared to the 6,897 incidents reported in 2022. Notably, 82% of those were crimes against property—burglary/breaking & entering, robbery, arson, fraud, etc. Comparing Fremont to cities of a similar population, Irvine—a city with a slightly larger population of 314,621—recorded 10,102 offenses; Chula Vista reported 9,137 crimes.

Lieutenant Veronica Rodrigues of the Fremont Police Department explained that staffing shortages significantly impact the department’s ability to address rising crime effectively. “Staffing is one of the biggest inhibiting factors for us,” she said. Due to “the profession being villainized, there’s been a reluctance for people to want to be a police officer… [so] the productivity kind of tends to go down.”

This staffing challenge has cascaded onto the community, leaving residents and business owners feeling the strain of slower response times and a diminished police presence.

For business owners, this impact is personal. “[Just] last Saturday people tried to steal our gas,” said Kevin Gose, the manager at Cresco Equipment Rentals in Fremont. “I did a [crime] report on Saturday. It took them 3 hours for them to get here. Even if you call the police, they’re not going to come here right away, so you’re on your own.”

Another store owner voiced similar struggles. AJ Martell, the manager at VIP PetCare, said, “people stole a bunch of stuff from our tents.” He added that the situation has been worsened by “crazy people walking around breaking stuff.” These incidents have led to costly repairs. “Having to replace big glass windows like that is not cheap at all,” he said.

While police are eager to respond to crime, they are constrained by legislative hurdles.

“The biggest challenge is Prop 47—it downgraded many crimes, including theft and drug possession, from felonies to misdemeanors. This means repeat offenders often just get a ticket and are back on the street, which makes it harder for us,” says Rodrigues. However, the recent election has brought hope, as voters approved Prop 36, a measure to reverse some aspects of Prop 47 and restore stronger penalties for certain offenses.

As Fremont enters a new phase of leadership—both mayoral and presidential—there’s growing pressure for actionable solutions.