What's the data for the month, and compared to 'normal' levels, historically?

If the Atherton Police Department is calling a 'rash of crime', there must be numbers for reasonable comparison, no?

[Editor's note: We are working to obtain that data, and will report it soon.]

Too bad, maybe time to re evaluate your public safety agencies. I bet the Sheriffs office can do a better job. With their over 700 employees, they can saturate Atherton until they catch those bad guys.

Time to leave the fire district alone. They can’t help you, unless you want their tax money....

Wait.....Oh yes you do!

They have gated communities all over the US, why not Atherton, the most expensive zipcode in California? It's up there on some of the stupidest things the Town of Atherton has done.

Thank you Props 47, 57 and 109. More really dumb stuff proposed by our PC politicians (and voters accept it)! Insanity is trusting crooks to obey laws!

Yep, walls work!!

Once again Atherton believes they are unique--this is happening all over the Bay Area, and has been since I don't know...forever? Plus Atherton is a gated community--there are locked gates all over the place. Did you guys read the article? Most of the burgleries were thru and OPEN DOOR. Plus I resent the implication that immigrants are to blame. Immigrants are some of the hardest working people I know. Plus, if you ban immigrant, then who is going to cut your grass, mow your lawn, work on that addition you have always wanted? It take a lot of workers to keep up those Atherton houses.

Never let facts stand in the way of a terrified citizenry.
Good lord, you people. LOL!

Atherton is not a gated community. There is one section of the city named Lindenwood which is surrounded by a wall, but not gated and without security personnel. And Lindenwood is probably less than 25% of the city's area.

Most of Atherton is not walled off and it's not feasible to build a wall around the entire city since the wall would need to be 10 miles in perimeter. Some comments have suggested its easy to just put up a wall and the problems go away. Again, it's not that sImple.

I agree that common sense things like locking doors is a good idea.

How about the common sense of the police department that is taking most of the town's budget actually getting out and preventing these crimes by being present on the streets? Why are we paying through the nose for this police department when they seemingly are not being effective in their role?

I am not a fan of Atherton Police Department. It is a small town police department. In my interactions with APD through the dozen or so years, I felt like I'm a character playing as citizen in the The Andy Griffith Show where Barney Fife was a deputy in the small town Mayberry. For example you can pull up any Atherton City Council or Transportation committee meeting on Youtube and can see the Chief of Police is mostly sitting there, very little to do or report, on his phone most of the time. You sometimes see reports on Almanac of hit and runs, break-ins, vandalism, etc in Atherton but you never hear of an apprehension or suspect in custody. Only rarely.

I admit this is harsh, but APD, in my opinion, functions as a "country club security" with all the benefits of being a sworn officer without the risks or demands of the real job but with all the expensive costs.

I am in support of San Mateo County Sherriff's office providing me law enforcement in Atherton. Having our own small town Police Department is like buying toilet paper at the corner store. I don't do that, I go to Costco. Maybe the Town can save some money and use that to fix its multi-generational-old storm water drainage problems? There is a long list of things that the Town can do for the citizens but its not going to happen if the money is draining into the APD so some lucky individuals can play cop.

Obvious solutions: lock your doors, leave a light or two on, arm your alarm (and have it connected to the police department), have someone house sit if you are away (or have police check on the property). Hire more police to do nothing but run patrols around town constantly.

More drastic: the city should install license plate cameras at key intersections throughout the city (and not tell us where so thieves aren't made aware of them). These people are getting away in cars somehow. Portola Valley has since installed them after their rash of burglaries. I know PV has fewer roads in and out, but Atherton could pick some major arteries (and a few not so obvious) and place cameras at those points to help us find these people when crimes occur.

Hate to say it, but maybe it is time to set up street cameras supervised by the police station? That way they can keep an eye on what is going on, but most importantly have evidence of license plates and suspicious activity after there has been a concern. As long as these cameras only sees the streets and not into properties it may be a reasonable compromise, I think most people are slowly accepting the fact that most public spaces are under surveillance, so why not Atherton.

I was at the meeting Thursday 1/31 evening. One resident admitted to leaving their alarm off inside the house because cobwebs were causing too many false alarms while they were traveling to NY or AZ.
REALLY ????? !!!!! I'll bet their cleaning staff can't find a ladder.
Another resident complained about APD not following up their burglary case.
REALLY ???? !!!!! S'matter, your phone broke.
Not sure you want to outsource police services to the Sheriff. Their caseload is most likely so high (proximity to RWC real crime) they won't get to your case for days. APD responds in minutes.

It seems to me, that it is time to dump the Atherton and Redwood City Police departments and, bring in some detectives, and roll it all up into the San Mateo County Sheriff. The Atherton Police are great at writing speeding tickets, and feeding cats and dogs, but where is the real work being done? Residents across the area are on pins and needles, wondering if they will be next.

ITS TIME!

Contract those police services to the sheriff. Atherton residents are not getting what they are paying for in services-protection.

Sheriff has a large overtime budget and 700 plus employees.

If you’re a criminal where would you commit crime. In a place that is understaffed in personel and has the lost valuable stuff. Atherton is perfect.