Editing Richmond, California (section)

==Crime==
The city has in the past suffered from a high crime rate; at one point, the city council requested a declaration of a state of emergency and asked for the intervention of the Contra Costa County Sheriff and the [[California Highway Patrol]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Zamora|first=Jim Herron|date=June 17, 2005|title=RICHMOND / 4 on council call for a state of emergency / The idea is to raise $2 million to fight violent crime wave|url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/richmond-4-on-council-call-for-a-state-of-2627613.php|access-date=February 23, 2023|website=SFGate |language=en-US}}</ref> Murder, vehicle theft, and larceny rates remain high, although they tend to be concentrated in the [[Iron Triangle, Richmond, California|Iron Triangle]] and adjacent unincorporated [[North Richmond, California|North Richmond]], which is outside the jurisdiction of the [[Richmond Police Department (California)|Richmond Police Department]]. By 1991, the city's all-time high of 62 homicides, among a population of 98,000, was seven times the national average. The portion of these homicides that were drug- or gang-related increased from 5 percent to 55 percent between 1989 and 1991.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://wtvr.com/2015/05/08/by-the-numbers-here-are-the-most-dangerous-cities-in-america/ |title=By the numbers: Here are the 'most dangerous' cities in America|date=May 8, 2015}}</ref>

Despite the city making extreme headway in crime reduction and prevention, Richmond received widespread attention in 2009 when a [[2009 Richmond High School gang rape|girl was gang raped]] at a homecoming dance at Richmond High School.

In 2007, Richmond opened a program to prevent gun violence, the Office of Neighborhood Safety.<ref>{{Cite web
| title=Office of Neighborhood Safety
| work=Richmond, California – Official Website
| access-date=June 21, 2014
| url=http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/index.aspx?NID=271
}}</ref> The program collects information and analyzes public records to determine "the 50 people in Richmond most likely to shoot someone and to be shot themselves." It then offers selected individuals "a spot in a program that includes a stipend to turn their lives around".<ref>{{Cite news
| last=Murphy
| first=Tim
| title=Did This City Bring Down Its Murder Rate by Paying People Not to Kill?
| work=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]]
| access-date=June 21, 2014
| date=August 2014
| url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/richmond-california-murder-rate-gun-death
}}</ref> "Over an 18-month period, if the men demonstrate better behavior, ONS offers them up to $1,000 a month in cash, plus opportunities to travel beyond Richmond."<ref>{{Cite news
| publisher=Al Jazeera America
| author=Jason Motlagh (Director)
| title=A city that pays criminals to behave
| work=America Tonight
| access-date=June 21, 2014
| date=June 6, 2014
| url=http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2014/6/6/a-city-that-payscriminalstobehave.html
}}</ref>

In 2004, Richmond was ranked the 12th most dangerous city in America.<ref>[http://journalism.berkeley.edu/ngno/stories/004050.html The Iron Triangle: Richmond's Forgotten Neighborhood], North Gate News Online. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610170941/http://journalism.berkeley.edu/ngno/stories/004050.html |date=June 10, 2007 }}</ref> Those rankings have changed, and Richmond is no longer ranked as a "most dangerous" city, in either California or the United States. This is in large part due to the efforts of Police Chief Chris Magnus, who established "community policing", which involves police officers engaging with affected high crime communities.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-richmond-pd-20150503-story.html|title=Homicide rates drop as Richmond chief builds bond with community|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=May 2, 2015|first=Lee|last=Romney}}</ref>