2,026 Crimes Reported in CV in 2021
How much crime happens in Castro Valley? At its Monday night meeting, the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) got that question answered during an update from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. Deputy Frances Gonzales delivered a mid-year review to the board with the most recent complete statistics available for 2021.
According to the sheriff’s office, in 2021 there were a total of 2,026 incident reports made in Castro Valley. The most dangerous month was November, with 199 incident reports, compared to 153 in both February 2021 and July 2021.
Among the common crimes were simple assault (1,548 incident reports), drug violations (1,448), larceny (385), disorderly conduct (218), car thefts (176), and burglary (94).
In more serious crime, there was one report of homicide, six reports of rape, nine reports of arson, 12 reported sex offenses, 223 weapon law violations, 64 reports of aggravated assault, and 41 reports of a robbery.
In more rare occurrences, there was a single incident report of a Peeping Tom, two reports of passing bad checks, four reports of indecent exposure, and seven reports of annoying telephone calls.
As for overall calls for services to the Sheriff’s Office in Castro Valley, there were 8,640 in 2021.
The most common reason for calling was to report disturbing the peace (1,637 calls), there were 1,597 traffic stops, 623 calls about a suspicious vehicle, 358 regarding petty theft, 315 reports of illegal parking, and 209 calls about auto burglaries.
The Sheriff’s Office is one of four law enforcement agencies that respond to incidents in Castro Valley. The California Highway Patrol, East Bay Regional Parks Police, and BART Police also respond to calls.
COVID Fatigue
Over two-and-a-half years into the COVID-19 pandemic, fatigue has well and truly set in for many of us. And constantly changing ideas of how to deal with the epidemic make matters even more difficult to maintain. Just last week, quarantine rules for people with known exposures to COVID were relaxed. In June, Alameda County temporarily brought back mask mandates only to quickly rescind them.
At the Monday meeting, the MAC also heard a COVID-19 update from Dr. George Ayala, the county’s deputy director of the Public Health Department Health Care Services Agency which hopefully helps provide a little clarity.
The county categorizes data by area code and in Castro Valley’s 94546 area code, the average COVID-19 positivity rate is 837.6 per 100,000 people.
That means the area is fairing slightly above average for the county-- San Leandro's 94579 area code has the densest COVID positivity rate at 1,211.7 per 100,000 people, while Pleasanton’s 94566 area code ranks among the lowest with 582.2 per 100,000 people.
In Castro Valley, 86.3 percent of residents are fully vaccinated. Pleasanton ranks the highest in Alameda County with 95 percent, while San Leandro’s 94578 area code has one of the lowest vaccination rates at 76 percent.
Overall, since the start of the pandemic in 2020, there have been 337,260 cases of COVID-19 reported in Alameda County, with 12,004 in Castro Valley. Another 18,187 cases were reported in the Eden Area including Ashland, Cherryland, and San Lorenzo.
Countywide, 1,973 deaths have been recorded, with 73 in Castro Valley and 116 in the Eden Area.
The deadliest COVID day in Alameda County was back on January 11, 2021, when 21 deaths were recorded. The first recorded COVID death in the county occurred on March 22, 2020; the most recent, just earlier this month on August 5.
And with school starting up, the county health department recommends vaccinating eligible kids, as well as making sure they are tested before returning to school from summer break or if they believe they’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19. Testing options are available at schools.covid19.ca.gov.
As COVID rules and regulations continue to shift, the easiest way to stay up to date with county mandates and statistics is via the county’s website at covid-19.acgov.org.