A small group gathered Thursday at the Redding City Council chambers to hear from State Assemblyman Brian Dahle and Councilman Brent Weaver on the issue of crime in Redding, and what is being done to fight it.
Dahle and Weaver spent about 90 minutes telling the business owners what can be done both at the local and state level to combat the growing issue of crime, homelessness and all of their associated problems. Weaver says that one of the things the city is doing is creating a public safety blueprint and hiring four neighborhood police officers.
“We thought it was important as a council to make sure that we’re in tune with what the community is saying, which is that we need help right now,” he said. “That’s why we pulled in those four officers, but also what we heard today at this merchant’s crime-watch meeting is, ‘Hey, you can’t just throw money at this problem; you’ve got to get to the root cause,’ and that’s the entire reason why we’re doing the public safety blueprint.”
Dahle says that about 5 percent of the population is usually responsible for about 95 percent of all county spending and he is working on funding for a new Shasta County jail and courthouse.
“We were instrumental in helping getting Siskiyou County get some more funding for their jail, and also we’re working with Tom Bosenko and the folks here in Shasta County to be able to increase the size of their jail, and that all takes time, you just don’t build a jail overnight,” Dahle said.
Weaver also floated the idea once again of a sales-tax increase to help pay for public safety. A similar proposal was defeated by voters last year. Both men agreed that crime should be the No. 1 priority of elected officials at all levels.