News

Photo from Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" (Ronn Ashore)

The Eureka Police Department has entered what appears to be an introspective, self-improvement period. First it hires a homeless liaison to tend to the needs of those a-wander in our streets and marshes. And then it conducts a "crime and policing" survey to assess residents' measure of satisfaction with the departments' work as well as gauge their greatest crime-related concerns.

The results are curious. The overall results indicate that the majority of respondents are satisfied with the EPD's work -- how officers treated them, how fast they responded to calls, and so forth. And yet 41 percent thought crime had increased and 54 percent thought it had remained the same over the past 12 months. As well, while 52 percent of respondents said they had not changed their activities because of concerns about crime, 48 percent said they had. And only 36 percent felt safe or very safe in Eureka.

So what exactly niggles you most, Eureka? What keeps you up nights clutching your phone, provokes cold sweats and nightmares when you finally do fall asleep as dawn brightens the sky? Illegal drugs (sales, possession and use, exposure to children). Transients. Grow houses. Theft. Violence. Illegal dumping and littering. Gangs.

And what plagues you practically not at all, compared with those other demons? Noisy neighbors and barking and/or wandering dogs.

Party on, law-abiding funlovin' citizens and rowdy canines.

Read the news release and survey results.