Come on St Joe PD, this is getting ridiculous. If you can only afford 8 officers on the streets, you need to re-organize the department. Does anyone know how many officers work in a day, including the detectives or other special units?

According to the St Joe PD web site, the city is divided into 9 districts and are assigned as follows:

"The 78 members of the Patrol Division provide service in various ways. Four officers are assigned as School Resource Officers and work daily in the high schools and middle schools of the St. Joseph School District. There are two officers assigned as Warrants Officers, their primary assignment is serving Municipal Court arrest warrants. One officer is assigned as the Court Martial at Municipal Court, his primary assignment is taking prisoners to court and making sure order is maintained while court is in session. Two officers are assigned as K-9 officers, they and their partners assist in the “patrol work” of the evening and midnight shift. The Traffic Unit is comprised of 7 officers, 6 traffic officers supervised by one Sergeant, Bill McCammon. Their job is the investigation into the more serious injury accidents and to provide directed traffic enforcement in problem areas through out the city."

My math is ruff, but I still count more than 8 available on the streets or am I missing something?

wow, i hope he is ok, the stevensons are a great family.
i hope they find who did this.... it is getting scary out there!
yes they have more than 8 officers on patrol, but they can't be everywhere all the time. i have noticed an increase of officers in the south side.... but i don't have anymore faith in our police department(except joe herrera (sp?))... they have A LOT of unsolved cases...

Three letters: C C W

What if Mrs. Stevenson had arrived at the store first,
Sad but true, C C W

Come on Joetown residents, ease up on the PD. They are very much understaffed!!!! Be thankful you have the small amount of officers that you do. THEY ARE DOING THE BEST THEY CAN WITH WHAT THEY HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amen on C C W. That would really take the fun out of robbing someone with a baseball bat!!

let's all hope that they get the offender on this one. starving for drug's is a dangerous way to live. he will get bloder in time. get him boy's.

Amen to the CCW comments! Would suck for the suspect when he realized he brought a baseball bat to a gun fight! I would LOVE to see the size of his eyes when he sees the business end of his CCW!

Someone needs to set these criminals straight and I hope for everyone's sake that it happens soon.

St.Joseph is seeing a spike in serious crimes. I live next door to Stockton, Ca. which has the highest violent crime rate per capita in the State, even ahead of Oakland. Like every municipality in California, there is the ever-present warfare between the Southern Mexican Gang and the Northern Mexican Gang ; the Suenos y Nortenos. They keep the Police in both Lodi and Stockton working overtime. It is sad to see hard times catching up with my hometown. It is not going to get better with the economic turn down or the overcrowding of jails that cause the early release of prisoners .Stay vigilant; there are more criminals than law enforcement to stop them.

I am just happy that David is just sore and not dead. I am glad that Bernie did not get attacked both David and Bernie are wonderful people. This nut had an agenda and I believe he had every intention of ending David's life the beating was just totally uncalled for. I just hope if ANYONE has any information about this crime that they call and report it to the PD we need to get this nut off the street because I am afraid next time the business owner may not be so lucky. So if you hear anything or saw anything please call and report it if the PD is so strapped for help in solving crimes then we as a community need to step up and take the bull by the horns.

I agree that we need more QUALIFIED people carrying concealed weapons.

There are people, like myself, who have been saying we will see a large increase in violent crimes against persons. Most chuckled, some laughed and very few believed it.

It is going to get worse, much worse. We are going to see an orchestrated crisis within two months, mark my words.

I hope everyone has emergency plans and supplies in place, if not - you will be among the many assaulted and worse as the masses flee for the supermarkets and Walmart.

As tragic as some of the recent crimes have been, they will not only continue, they will escalate and become more violent. Make sure your family knows how you feel everyday and treat everyone as your brother and sister. Then when we make it out of this in a decade or more - keep doing it. The reason we have gotten so out of hand is because we have lost our way. It is up to us to find it - you know in your heart what is right and what is wrong. Protect you and yours, the police can only respond - not prevent.

You've been warned.

Due to the nature of this attack, I hope the police give this case priority attention. It is hard to believe anyone would be capable of harming someone who is such a tremendous member of the community.