{"id":409059,"date":"2026-07-23T05:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T05:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/409059\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T05:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T05:10:09","slug":"bakersfield-police-business-owners-discuss-impact-of-vandalism-on-local-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/409059\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakersfield police, business owners discuss impact of vandalism on local businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 While Bakersfield police say there does not appear to be an increase in reported vandalism offenses at this time, officers and local business owners say the financial and emotional toll of these crimes can still be significant.<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy:<\/p>\n

Courtesy: Bakersfield Police Department<\/p>\n

According to the Bakersfield Police Department, vandalism continues to affect businesses throughout the city, with some areas seeing a higher concentration of cases than others.<\/p>\n

“I’d say we do see a very high concentration of those crimes in downtown and Old Town Kern, primarily because of their proximity to public transit,” Detective Michael Broida with the Bakersfield Police Department said.<\/p>\n

Detective Broida, who previously served on the department’s Street Impact Team, said many of the vandalism cases he encountered appeared to involve people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the vandalism that we are seeing comes from the transient population and whether it be mental health or drug induced crimes, a lot of it does appear to be random,” Detective Broida said.<\/p>\n

\"FILE:<\/p>\n

FILE: Downtown Bakersfield. KBAK\/KBFX<\/p>\n

Although BPD says there is no apparent increase in reported vandalism cases, the department continues to focus on identifying repeat offenders responsible for damaging businesses.<\/p>\n

“I will say that we’ve done a very focused study on identifying those frequent offenders,” Detective Broida said. “So those subjects who have repeatedly and repeatedly and frequently vandalized businesses and have been responsible for thousands of dollars of damage, identifying who they are and working with the DA’s office, with judges, to author bail enhancements to keep them in custody.”<\/p>\n

For Gabe Ulloa, chairman of the Downtown Business Association<\/a> and co-owner of In Your Wildest Dreams on F Street,<\/a> vandalism is something he has experienced firsthand.<\/p>\n

\"KBAK\/KBFX\"<\/p>\n

Ulloa said his business has dealt with graffiti and break-ins over the years. While those incidents can be frustrating, he said he has learned not to take them personally.<\/p>\n

“There’s always lots of things that happen in business and that’s kind of the cost to do business, unfortunately,” Ulloa said. “But it’s one of those where you just improve, you learn how you can do things better, and you see how you can prevent some of these things from happening.”<\/p>\n

He said the cost of repairing damaged property often falls on the business owner.<\/p>\n

“If a window is smashed, that’s something that comes out of our pocket. If a door is broken, that’s something that comes out of our pocket,” Ulloa said. “It just gets more and more expensive to be a business owner.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A downtown Bakersfield tattoo parlor was vandalized overnight following allegations that one of its artists has a swastika tattooed on his body. PHOTO: KBAK\/KBFX<\/p>\n

To help protect their business, Ulloa said they have added additional security cameras, regularly monitor the property, and implemented a no bag policy.<\/p>\n

As chairman of the Downtown Business Association, Ulloa said business owners also work together to share resources and communicate with law enforcement.<\/p>\n

“We really try to work together as a coalition with downtown and Bakersfield Police Department to see what we can do to protect each other, how businesses can share resources and how we can help identify some of these folks who are doing this consistently and try to get them off the street,” Ulloa said.<\/p>\n

He also encouraged business owners to take advantage of city resources, including the Bakersfield app to report graffiti and other services available to help keep properties clean.<\/a><\/p>\n

Detective Broida said surveillance cameras continue to play a critical role in solving vandalism cases.<\/p>\n

\"120816_security_camera.jpg\"<\/p>\n

120816_security_camera.jpg<\/p>\n

“If there’s not an eyewitness person there on scene who could identify a suspect in some of these vandalism offenses, we rely heavily on video surveillance from the businesses, from citizens, from people on scene,” Detective Broida said.<\/p>\n

He encouraged business owners to report every incident and provide investigators with any surveillance footage they may have.<\/p>\n

“When it comes to reporting vandalisms, definitely give us a call on our non-emergency line,” Detective Broida said. “If there’s video surveillance footage or pictures, please get that to us in addition to the report filing. Communication is key.”<\/p>\n

Detective Broida added that while vandalism may not always be considered the most serious crime, its effects can be long-lasting for local businesses.<\/p>\n

“In the grand scheme of crime, a window smash might not be the crime of the century,” Detective Broida said. “However, to that business owner… that’s their livelihood… once we started seeing businesses being dropped from their insurance policies because of repeated vandalisms and repeated claims… that’s a huge hit for us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 While Bakersfield police say there does not appear to be an increase in reported vandalism…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-409059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}