BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
San Mateo County Supervisor Jackie Speier accused Sheriff Christina Corpus of making contradictory statements about the amount of crime in the county.
In February, Corpus claimed crime was down. But during a budget hearing on Tuesday, she said crime was up.
Supervisor Speier questioned the sheriff about the contradictory statements.
Corpus said she stood by the numbers she posted on Feb. 5, stating there was a 15% decrease in property crime between January and December of 2024. There were 487 fewer incidents of property crime, according to the statement.
When Speier asked her why the numbers don’t match, Corpus said she was talking about San Mateo County as a whole. But she didn’t shed much light on the discrepancy.
“When it comes to property, we are a safe county and unfortunately, vehicle theft crime, you know, we have theft. People come and do retail theft, but I stand by those numbers that I gave,” Corpus said during the meeting.
Corpus said that crime comes in waves and the statistics that were put out in February are facts. “I don’t create those stats. They’re created by a crime analyst,” Corpus said.
Just before the election
But the rosy crime-is-down stats came out in February, just before voters were going to decide whether to give the Board of Supervisors authority to fire the sheriff. The measure to give the supervisors that authority passed with 84% of the vote.
Corpus’ office released data from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2024, with the total amount of offenses reported. Crimes in the county have decreased according to the data, but several types of crime have increased over the past year.
What the stats show
The crime data says there were 62 reported robberies in 2024, while in 2023, there were 54. There was a 15% increase, according to the county.
Car thefts also increased by 8.6% from 2023 to 2024, according to the statistics. There were 226 thefts reported in 2024.
Extortion and blackmail increased from 14 reports to 16 in 2024, according to the county’s crime data.
While fewer rape cases were reported, from 36 in 2023 to 27 in 2024, sodomy cases increased from eight to nine in 2024.
More people reported being intimidated, according to county data. There was an increase from 113 in 2023 to 126 in 2024.
Kidnappings and abductions rose 25% from 36 in 2023 to 45 in 2024, according to county data.
“A Sheriff You Can Trust.”
Her original election slogan had a typo.
A Sheriff You Can’t Trust.
There, I fixed it.
More lies!!!!! All this train wreck does is lie! She lies so much she cannot possibly keep it all straight!!!! If this wasn’t so horrific it could be a comedy. Shame on her!!!!!
What a joke
It not lie. Crime go up and down. San Mateo is a safe area. Stop the hate because women and brown.
What appears to be a lie is what was presented to the public, and the Board of Supervisors, by Corpus as she tried to bluff her way through reading a budget presentation, then answering questions. Corpus clearly inferred in her babbling response to Supervisors Speier that countywide crime statistics had decreased, while crime statistics from only the unincorporated areas of the county had increased. Perhaps it was just the opposite. The data speaks for itself. It is most likely that Corpus does not have a complete understanding of how crime statistics are accumulated, prepared and were intended to be presented. Therefore, Corpus omitted the basis of pertinent information such as, “countywide” or “in unincorporated areas” from her media releases and responses to direct questions on the conflicted data to clarify what the numbers represent.
Corpus reporting crime statistics from incorporated municipalities, who do their own crime data reporting, is misleading without a qualification of the nature of the data and why she might include those stats. Contract cities should be treated exactly the same as cities with their own police forces; yet it appears Corpus intentionally did not do so. When caught with a pointed question or two from Supervisor Speier, Corpus immediately diverted fault to a crime analyst.
Corpus had the opportunity in the Board meeting to provide both clarity and insight, yet failed to do so, as is her pattern of behavior. No one has mentioned Corpus’ gender or skin tone except Corpus, who seems hyper concerned with both factors. No one else cares what race or gender anyone who behaves like Corpus has; all such behaviors are unacceptable to be coming from any gender, any race, any nationality serving in the capacity of sheriff. You can certainly embrace Corpus’ administration, her behaviors, and support her in any way you wish. Peace.