Dear Fremont Community,
I am writing to you as I did last year to offer condolences, prayers, and support for families impacted by the senseless loss of life due to gun violence throughout our nation. With sadness and frustration, I must write to you again this year as this concern persists. As next month is National Gun Violence Awareness Month, I would like to use this opportunity to provide an update on our Department’s approach to gun violence.
Over the past few months, I have received several inquiries from our community regarding FPD’s preparation, readiness, and mitigation strategies for these types of violent incidents. Despite ongoing staffing challenges, we continue to deploy specialized investigative resources utilizing intelligence-led policing strategies to identify those posing a violent risk to our community.
I am proud to tell you that due to the hard work of our officers and detectives, FPD seized 64 firearms in 2022. We also experienced a 24% reduction in shootings; our teams made 62 firearm-related arrests.
We know that improperly secured firearms are occasionally stolen and used to commit violence or lead to accidental injuries and deaths. To help address this, FPD held a Gun Buyback event in January 2023, resulting in 267 unwanted or unneeded firearms being voluntarily turned in for destruction.
As our Department’s Training Plan outlines, Fremont Police Officers receive ongoing training on best practices and policies in responding to violent persons, including response options, legal parameters, emergency treatment (trauma care), incident debriefs, and command/control protocols. Our detectives also maintain their investigative skills by attending various specialized training courses.
With our community’s support, cameras and unmanned aerial systems (drones) are used throughout our City to deter, detect, and investigate major crimes. In addition, with City Council approval, FPD utilizes and deploys specialized equipment and technology specifically designed to help mitigate the impact of violence.
Responding to concerns in recent months about gun violence from our community, FPD proactively engaged our local private and public schools to host school safety sessions, including active shooter response training, trauma care training, de-escalation training, etc. and some of which will be taking place in the next few weeks. We have also connected with several businesses and faith-based organizations to offer violent intruder training. In addition, we are fortunate to have a fantastic and nationally recognized School Resource Officer (SRO) Program that stands ready and continues to serve the students, staff, and parents within our City.
It is important to remember that although extreme acts of violence have occurred more frequently on a national level, our City did not experience an increase in violent crimes last year; in fact, we had a slight decrease. I encourage you to take a moment and read our 2022 Fremont Police Department Annual Report to learn more about crime stats, special initiatives, and projects that have taken place over the last year.
City of Fremont remains a safe community; however, our work is never done.
We stand together with our community and will continue to do all we can to identify and hold accountable people who cause harm to our community.
Respectfully,
Sean Washington,
Chief of Police
