Police in Petaluma say a rise in property crimes and the growing opioid crisis go hand-in-hand.

There is a community crime meeting on the issue on Tuesday night. KRON4 talked with police about the alarming trend officers have noticed in recent months.

Petaluma police Lt. Ron Klein says property crimes so far this year are up 5 percent compared to this same period last year. That’s petty thefts, auto, and home burglaries.

Lt. Klein says assaults are up too.

“And a lot of that’s fueled by an increase in narcotics use,” Lt. Klein said.

Klein says it’s been a month since all Petaluma police officers were outfitted with the anti-opioid medication Narcan to combat the drug problem.

Petaluma Valley hospital says it has treated more people for prescription drug overdoses this year than it had it in the previous five years combined.

Lt. Klein says police are also seeing a steady rise in heroin abuse.

“They’re looking for anything that, either money or anything that they can sell to get the money so that they can purchase the narcotics,” Lt. Klein said.

In 2009, the Petaluma Police Department had 77 officers. But because of budget cuts, that number is down to 64.

That combined with the negative effects of Proposition 47, which passed three years ago, downgrading drug possession charges from felonies to misdemeanors.

Lt. Klein says it’s been tough to tackle crime.

“On any given time, the most officers we have at any time on our streets is between six and seven officers and that’s at the most,” Klein said. “And for a city of 60,000 people and 14 square miles, you can’t be everywhere. And so what we always ask people is if you see something suspicious, in your neighborhoods or around schools, or anything downtown, that doesn’t look right. If you’re driving through there, to give us a call and we’ll send officers out to look at it because if we have 60,000 pair of eyes out there, it’s a whole lot more effective than just 64.”

The police department will be discussing these crime trends with the community at a town hall meeting at Mary Collins School at Cherry Valley.

That meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

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