OPINION: Break in and break down

BY LORETTA REDD

Back from a five day business trip in Chicago, as always, I’m glad to be home. Ours is a community that cares about the way it looks and behaves, like a refined older woman, gracious but free of pretense.
But even in paradise, there is an underbelly of criminal intent. I didn’t notice anything odd as I entered my home around 11 PM, turned on the kitchen light and began to respond to my insistently blinking message machine.

That’s when I noticed the drawers were half open; items were askew, and that sickening awareness that someone had broken into my home flooded me. A glance into the living room revealed the black metal bracket- all that was left of a 50 inch plasma TV. In another room, the confirmation that all the remaining small treasures from my Mother who died when I was twenty-one, were gone. Her first silver dollar, won in Vegas when the Flamingo hotel was the hottest game in town, and my gold charm bracelet, begun with a ‘sweet sixteen’ charm and continued through special dates and travels around the world, were now stuffed into someone’s pocket, where they did not belong.
The only pleasant part of having to dial 911 in Santa Barbara is rapidly reaching the voice of a caring individual- professional and thorough, yet efficient and compassionate. The actual police response would be slow; I was told they were working on “several incidents” that night.
“Probably gang related,” I thought for the first time since moving here a decade ago. How things have changed.
The damage was done, after all, so I sat and tried not to touch anything to disturb the remote possibility of fingerprints having been left. Indeed, it was over ninety minutes until an officer arrived, but he apologized, immediately began taking a report, then called for backup from the Crime Scene Investigation department.
Soon I had two officers working in tandem, doing their best to collect evidence, sharing hypotheses in their attempt to recreate the motive and structure of the robbery, while bemoaning how some popular television shows had produced a better ‘educated’ criminal.
Their theory, with which I agreed, was the robbers had carried out the plasma screen and other items wrapped in my bedspread, but then something ‘spooked’ them, so they didn’t finish the job. Not a comforting hypothesis.
May I tell you how much I hate alarm systems? Rather than the peace of mind they are designed to offer, they act as a reminder that I live in the prison of electronic bars and motion detectors, while ‘they’ live in the free world.
The little known truth is Santa Barbara has less than a handful of officers on duty any night. Most residents would be shocked to know the minimal extent of ‘coverage’ in our city. Having run for Council, attended the Citizen’s Training Academy and served on the original Citizen’s Advisory Council, I am well aware of the City’s budget, the union aggravations, hiring challenges, pay scales, cost of living and various political shenanigans that make up law enforcement.
With my new ‘security system’ installation, comes not only the warning of hefty charges by the police department for ‘false alarms,’ which is understandable, but a reminder that a twenty dollar City license is now required as well. Wait a minute…our City isn’t safe enough that I’m not about to spend $1500 on an unwanted collection of electronic beepers and screaming alarms, and they want to now charge me for the privilege having to have one?
I’m going to bet that if the dollar cost of every alarm system and monitoring service in this town had instead been added to the police budget, there would be sufficient officers and patrol vehicles to bring home invasions, robberies and even gang attacks to a minimum.
If the security and safety of its citizens isn’t the absolute, number one issue for this City Council, we need them to rethink their priorities. Personal vendettas and adolescent grudges between the Mayor, city salary negotiators and brass knuckle union reps affect the security of our homes and families, while Council spends your tax money on painting blue water lines after Iceland melts, and architecturally correct, Spanish tradition, downtown bathroom designs.
We’ve got the inmates running the asylum, folks, and it’s up to you to help remind our elected representatives and city managers that we are fast losing the crime battle in our community, and it’s not the fault of our officers.