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Attachment G Memo from Chief Kerns Concerning Property Crime Reduction Proposal City of Eugene th Ave 99 West 10 M Eugene, Oregon 97401 EMORANDUM (541) 682-5444 (541) 682-5572 FAX www.eugene-or.gov Date: February 3, 2010 To: Mayor Piercy and City Council From: Pete Kerns, Eugene Police Chief, 541-682-5102 PROPERTY CRIME REDUCTION PROPOSAL Subject: This memo is in response to the comments received at the January 11, 2010 Council work session related to downtown projects. As part of the discussion to increase public safety efforts in downtown, you communicated the need to continue property crime reduction efforts without jeopardizing the Police Department’s ability to respond in other areas to this increasing crime problem. The Executive Management team brainstormed options to address these concerns and we have developed the following strategy: Increase property crime reduction efforts by adding dedicated crime prevention personnel in FY11 Increase the Rental Housing Code fee to pay for these efforts The rationale to connect the property crime reduction efforts with the rental housing code can be found through the crime analysis data developed by EPD’s data-led policing efforts. Attached you will find a map that shows ‘hot spots’ of property crime data over the last few months. The ‘hot spot’ locations requiring the highest number of required responses are Chase Gardens, Kinsrow, and the South and West University neighborhoods. The nexus can be made between high property crimes and the community’s higher density/multi-family developments. Residents in rental units are more frequent victims of property crime in these neighborhoods. In addition, rental housing owners become victims when their renters engage in property crimes, often fueled by illegal drug use/sales and alcohol abuse. The City would like to dedicate a Crime Prevention Specialist to work with rental owners to reduce the incidence of property crime associated with rental housing. The City of Eugene collects an annual fee for higher density or rental units, and this fee could be increased to fund the additional crime prevention staff necessary to achieve this property crime reduction strategy. The next steps we will pursue include discussions with the Rental Housing Department Advisory Committee and other stakeholders. We will return to Council with options for increasing the Rental Housing Program fee and continuing the rental housing code program to increase property crime reduction efforts as an ongoing program.