The Fontana Police Department is the local agency that provides law enforcement for the town of Fontana, California, located in San Bernardino County about 50 miles east of Los Angeles. Its headquarters are located at 17005 Upland Avenue, Fontana, California 92335. The FPD currently has 176 sworn police officers. According to the Fontana Police Department website:
“The Fontana Police Department is committed to protecting the community by providing quality ‘Service with Integrity.’ “
The FPD is subdivided into 3 divisions. The Administrative Services Division provides support to the Field and Special Operations Divisions and is home to the Communications Center (using a Computer Aided Dispatch System (CAD), an Automated Vehicle Locator (AVL) and an eight hundred megahertz radio system reaching across the county), the Internal Affairs & Risk Management Unit, the Personnel, Training & Background Unit, the Property Unit & the Records Unit. The Field Services Division is made up of the Air Support Unit (equipped with 2 Robinson R44 Raven II helicopters with searchlights, forward looking infrared (FLIR), GPS mapping and and Lo-Jack), the Field Evidence Unit, the Investigations Unit (further split into 3 categories: Crimes Against Property, Crimes Against Persons and the Specialized Victim Unit handling sex crimes and crimes against children), the K9 Unit, the Patrol Unit, and the Traffic Unit. The Spec Ops Division is made up of the Crime Prevention Unit, the Multiple Enforcement Team (which is made up of the Gang Unit, the Bicycle Unit, Graffiti Enforcement and Crime-Free Multi-Housing), the Narcotics Unit, the Animal Services Unit, the Code Compliance Unit, and lastly the Emergency Services Unit.
Fontana, California has approximately 200,874 people living within its borders and there are around 5,495 crimes yearly. Violent crimes account for about 16% of these crimes: murders being at 5 (0.02 per 1k residents), rapes at 32 (0.16 per 1k residents), robberies at 299 (1.49 per 1k residents), & assaults at 532 (2.65 per 1k residents). This totals to 868 violent crimes each year (4.32 per 1k residents). Property crimes make up the other 84% of these crimes: burglaries being at 1,137 (5.66 per 1k residents), thefts at 2,480 (12.35 per 1k residents) and thefts of vehicles at 1,010 (5.03 per 1k residents), totaling at 4,627 property crimes each year (23.03 per 1k residents). Overall, a person living in Fontana experiences a 1 in 231 chance of being a victim of a violent crime and a 1 in 43 chance of being a victim of a crime of property each year.
The Fontana Police Department collects and maintains records on crime statistics within its jurisdiction. Access to these statistics can be garnered by following the link on the FPD’s website titled ‘Public Information” and choosing ‘Crime Statistics” Here you will find information on getting annual crime statistics, for Fontana and the rest of California, and in addition a local listing of crime statistics for the years of 2006 through 2010. The FPD also provides geographically-based crime data in an interactive format on a map through Crime Mapping. To access the crime data for Fontana, California, simply go to the drop-down menu for “Choose an Agency” and select “Fontana Police, CA”. The Fontana Police Department also provides information on sex offenders registered within their jurisdiction through a link on their website entitled “Offender Watch”.
The FPD Public Information page has links to other helpful information as well. There are resources for missing persons, wanted persons, Victim’s Rights (Marcy’s Law), street light outages and annual reports in addition to, other useful information.
Police reports are obtainable from the FPD Records Unit. There is an eighteen dollar fee for this service. Information on obtaining a copy of a police report is provided on the Fontana Police Department website. The FPD Records Unit also can provide background checks. This service also entails a fee of eighteen dollars, requires photo identification and the request must be made in person. This service only covers information contained in records possessed by the Fontana Police Department. For state-level clearance letters, you will need to contact the state of California’s Department of Justice.