Sunnyvale has long been seen as one of the safest cities in the Bay Area and state of California. But the union who represents public safety officers in that city said that’s changing. In fact, while violent crime is going down nationally, they say it’s up in their city.  According to data from the state DOJ’s website, between 2022-23, there was a 15% increase in violent crime in Sunnyvale. While neighboring cities of San Jose, Santa Clara, and Mountain View all saw violent crime go down. Something Sunnyvale resident Emma Barrera was surprised to hear. “One of the reasons we moved here was because it’s supposed to be one of the safest cities, especially in the Bay Area,” she said. “We’ve definitely seen more police activity recently.”  The officers’ union has now posted the stats on its social media pages, saying it’s important that residents and city leaders understand the upward trend and do what is necessary to curb the rise now. Crimes like aggravated assault, rape, and armed robbery have all gone up. “This is not to raise alarm, it’s to raise awareness so the community knows what’s happening so they can be more vigilant,” Dustin Derollo, Sunnyvale Public Safety Officers’ Association (PSOA) spokesperson, said. “They can understand how better to protect themselves, and for us, they can hopefully be better witnesses to crime so that we can help arrest people.” The union says the department is understaffed but it is not using these stats to ask for more officers. Instead, they say their goal is to make sure the city and department of public safety are tracking what types of crime are happening and where. “This could be an issue of, are our officers geographically distributed in the right places? Do we need to change some of their focus over the course of their shift to be doing one type of function over another?” Derollo said. Data over the past 10 years indicates violent crime is up by double digits, but that’s something many cities in the region are experiencing. A city spokesperson wrote that crime rates in Sunnyvale remain low overall and is considered one of the safest cities in the Bay Area. They also note that new officers were included in this year’s budget, and the city deployed automated license plate readers to help solve and reduce crime. They wrote, in part, “Our highest priority is to ensure the safety of our community. And we encourage everyone to engage with us and actively participate in crime prevention efforts.”