The California Highway Patrol will expand its crime-fighting presence to another Bay Area city, weeks after a resident’s petition urged state leaders to deploy crime-fighting officers because of local police shortages.
Car shows, where people show off their vehicles and often perform dangerous stunts in vacant lots and public intersections, as well as drug-related crime, shootings and shoplifting, have made life in the Vallejo enclave much more dangerous, resident Paula Conley wrote in the petition. posted on Change.org.
Conley and other residents have called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to deploy California Highway Patrol officers to Vallejo, similar to how the governor sent CHP officers to Oakland earlier in 2024 to address rising crime there.
“We started to see their (crime) statistics go down and their quality of life improve and they’re better at dealing with crime,” Conley told Fox News Digital. “We have exactly the same problems as Oakland, but we’re just a smaller city. It’s going to take manpower to really help us.”
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The headquarters of the Vallejo Police Department is seen in Vallejo, California. (Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
“We are not asking this lightly. This has been a crisis situation for a very long time. Our leadership still lacks the urgency to address this and at some point, someone has to help us,” she added.
Conley wrote in her petition that sending CHP officers and Solano County sheriff’s deputies to Vallejo could help deal with crime, serve as a deterrent to potential criminals and provide support to an overstretched police force.
CHP Deputy Commissioner Ezery Beauchamp told reporters at a press conference in Oakland last week that the agency has assisted Vallejo police since July, making 600 traffic stops and making 32 arrests.
CHP leaders met with Solano County Sheriff Thomas Ferrara and the agency is “committed” to working with Interim Vallejo Police Chief Jason Tao “to help combat the side events and illegal street racing that plagues the community,” Beauchamp said.
A pedestrian crosses Georgia Street in Vallejo, California. Residents there are looking for additional help in the fight against crime. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Newsom confirmed the request for a CHP presence in Vallejo last week, but said city leaders need to finally address police staffing issues.
“I just want the people of Vallejo to know that you’re not going to make the CHP do the job of local police,” he said. “They kind of think, ‘Well, the state is going to come in and give that grant for free.’ free. We won’t be in that business.”
Newsom added that “we’re in the business of support. You see what we’re doing in Vallejo. We support them.”
Conley agreed that Vallejo authorities need to address police staffing issues.
California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference on public safety in 2025 with new laws and increased enforcement, in Oakland, California, on December 27, 2024. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Just like Oakland police need to do their part in running their department properly, so does Vallejo. That’s a big component of why we’re in this state of decline and I agree with the governor on that responsibility,” she told Fox News Digital. “Our city cannot expect anyone else to save our situation other than to support us in taking control of the rebuilding process.”
In September, the governor signed emergency legislation to allow retired Solano County sheriff’s deputies to return to law enforcement full-time to help meet Vallejo’s public safety needs. The Vallejo Police Department currently has only 75 officers out of 129 available positions, Vallejo Police Sergeant Rashad Hollis told Fox News Digital.
Vallejo City Manager Andrew Murray said the city is aware of Conley’s petition.
“We respect and value our community’s right to voice their concerns and welcome the ongoing dialogue about public safety in Vallejo,” Murray said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital by Vallejo Police Department and city leaders when asked for comment on the matter. “The mayor, City Council and I have also sent recent requests for law enforcement support to the governor, state and regional agencies.”
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California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers secure the state Capitol building in Sacramento. (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
Rebuilding the beleaguered police department is a top priority, but more needs to be done, Murray acknowledged. The department coordinates with neighboring law enforcement agencies on a daily basis, he said.
The Solano County Sheriff’s Office is responding to certain calls in Vallejo to assist local authorities, said sheriff’s Sgt. Rex Hawkins. The sheriff’s office is in the process of submitting a service proposal to the city of Vallejo, he said.
If approved, “the services contract will be submitted and once the contract is signed, the process of building a law enforcement response will take place,” Hawkins told Fox News Digital.
Some Vallejo residents cited the lack of police officers as a cause of the decline in quality of life.
From December 27, the city experienced 24 murders in 2024, according to police data, compared to 21 in the same period last year. Rapes and thefts also increased. Vehicle break-ins and thefts, as well as assaults and robberies, are on a slight decline.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference with the California Highway Patrol announcing new efforts to increase public safety in the East Bay, in Oakland on July 11. (Photo by Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Scott, a Vallejo resident who declined to give his last name for fear of repercussions from local criminals, told Fox News Digital that he has seen the city suffer an overall decline since moving more than two years ago from San Francisco, where he lived for two decades.
“We have problems with drug houses and open-air prostitution,” he said. “Criminal elements, they just come into town and take advantage of the fact that there are so few police.”
“San Francisco is a lot safer than Vallejo. I can walk around San Francisco late at night. Vallejo, I’m not going to walk around at night. There’s too much criminal activity,” added Scott, 54. “The media likes to mess around San Francisco. There is no comparison.”
Vallejo city leaders declared a state of emergency for police personnel in July, giving the police chief and Murray, the city manager, authority to address the problem, including seeking help from the sheriff’s office and the CHP.
Murray said progress has been made in addressing the number of police officers, but that “we understand there is more work to be done.”
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“Vallejo Police work with our neighboring law enforcement agencies on a daily basis and we are grateful for their consistent mutual assistance,” he said. “As we continue to rebuild, we remain open to exploring additional formalized police support that enhances public safety for our community.”
The deployment of more CHP officers to Vallejo would come months after Newsom ordered the state agency to send officers to Oakland in February to deal with crime, including organized vehicle and retail theft and violent crime.
“As crime rates across California decline — including right across the bay in San Francisco — Oakland is seeing the opposite trend,” Newsom said at the time. “What is happening in and around this beautiful city is alarming and unacceptable. I am sending California Highway Patrol to assist local efforts to restore the sense of safety that the hardworking people of Oakland and the East Bay demand and deserve.”
In July, the governor announced he would quadruple the number of shifts CHP officers work in the city after the CHP recovered more than a thousand stolen cars, seized 55 crime-related weapons and arrested 562 suspects in the East Bay since February.
Newsom announced last week that the CHP would remain in Oakland for an additional month to increase the police presence there. He also criticized local leaders for failing to change policies limiting police pursuits of fugitive criminals, despite asking them to do so over the summer, saying they “had an opportunity and didn’t do it.”
Vallejo lies approximately 25 miles south of Oakland.
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an increase in law enforcement officers in Oakland over the summer. (Getty Images)
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Newsom’s office referred to a CHP statement highlighting the CHP’s work in Vallejo.
“The CHP is present and active in Vallejo and will continue to work with community stakeholders, including its own police department, to ensure the community is safe and secure,” CHP Sgt. said Andrew Barclay.
The CHP contacted Tao, Vallejo’s interim police chief, about law enforcement assistance to bolster police presence in the area, the CHP said. Units from the CHP’s Solano District Office have been advised to assist on the streets of Vallejo when they are free or in the area, Barclay said.
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In response to that petition, most of the feedback has been positive, said Conley, who cited her frustration with why she created it in the first place.
“I tried to work with our city and tried to get answers and everything, and I talked to the county. I’m like ‘Well, who else can we go to?’ We’re going to the governor,” she said. “I’ve never done a petition. This is all new to me. There is a lot of apathy in our city because things have been bad for a long time and they kind of stay that way.”
