STOCKTON, Calif. — As the city of Stockton experiences its deadliest start to the year in homicide count since 2012, business leaders in the city are encouraging business owners to maintain vigilance and take more security measures.
Data released by the Stockton Police Department shows a 3% increase in overall crime between January through July 2022 and the same timeframe last year. Among the crimes that data shows increased the most in the past year were property crimes, which saw an 8.5% increase; and homicides, which are up 25%.
On Aug. 11, 23-year-old Tyrique Jamal Harris was shot and killed at a bank in the parking lot of the Sherwood Mall.
The deadly shooting in the heart of one of the city's most established commerce hubs followed an attempted robbery of a different bank earlier in the year. The suspect in the attempted robbery allegedly opened fire at the crowded bank's ceiling, hundreds of feet away from the city's Eastland Plaza shopping center.
Meanwhile, in other areas of the city, some businesses have been hit by shoplifters. One Target in the city's popular Trinity Parkway shopping district was hit by three sets of thieves, stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise, all within a 10-day span in late June, police said in Facebook posts.
According to Michael Huber, executive director of the city's Downtown Stockton Alliance, crime has not impacted the opening of businesses in the downtown area.
"We have seen a spike in crime in some of the other areas, I concentrate just on our downtown district because that is where my responsibilities are," Huber said. "We're actually seeing a resurgence of businesses reopening since the COVID pandemic and that crime hasn't really affected our commerce in the downtown district."
Instead, Huber credits his business district's advanced security measures for helping keep business owners and customers at ease.
In 2020, the district unveiled a 22-hour, 7-day safety ambassador program. The program assigns patrols to safety ambassadors wearing tactical vests and blue shirts.
The ambassadors, described as "social agents" instead of security guards, are able to escort downtown workers and visitors on foot, help locate businesses and buildings, jumpstart dead batteries, pump air into low tires, perform CPR, respond to burglary alarms, use pepper spray and patrol downtown streets.
"We patrol the downtown district and that takes away a little bit of the responsibilities for the Stockton Police Department," Huber said. "That has really helped reduce not only burglaries and property damage, but crime in general because of the visibility of the ambassadors."
Huber said his district also implemented a "first call" program alerting the alliance and ambassadors when burglary alarms go off, before the business owner.
"We're here, we can respond quicker, and we've already responded to 16. That's been very successful," Huber said. "We're not trained or equipped to be a police force, so we call 911. We sit back and observe and wait for the police officers to get here to clear the building. But the 16 (alarms) that we responded to, none of the contents of the business were lost."
In addition to his business district's built-in security measures, Huber also encourages members to make secure changes on their own such as improving lighting.
Timm Quinn, CEO of the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce, echoes Huber's message adding that even though Stockton was not hit as hard as other cities when it comes to organized retail crime, improving on-site security systems can be beneficial.
"I know a lot of businesses out there have been either stepping up security patrols or adding some security patrols," Quinn said. "Stepping up their security, installing new windows, you know, the shatterproof windows, and things like that, just staying up to date on cameras and security measures that way."
Some Chamber of Commerce member businesses are also enrolled in the Stockton Police Department's business watch program.
The program establishes communication links among businesses within the same geographic region such as plazas, malls or city blocks.
The police department also conducts community walks in participating districts, one of which is scheduled for Thursday.
"We had a good meeting with Stockton PD and the sheriff a couple of months ago, talking about organized retail crime and things like that," Quinn said, adding that the Chamber of Commerce also consults with the California Retailer's Association. "It just seems like nowadays everything is just harder, and you have to jump through more hoops just to stay in business as usual."
While business leaders in the city say owners can try to implement some solutions to help deter crime, Dr. Gökçe Soydemir a business economics professor for Stanislaus State says at some point businesses are also forced to weigh the risk and reward of operating in an area seeing a rise in crime.
"They weigh the benefits and costs, the risk associated, and if it comes to a point where they can not stay profitable, considering all those risks and costs associated, then they will move," Dr. Soydemir said. "Something has to be done to increase security, ramp up police presence, provide incentives, maybe to the banks or the businesses as a whole to ramp up their own security."
Watch More Stockton News from ABC10: 1 killed, 2 hurt in overnight Stockton shooting
