King City gets new LED lights to brighten streets and lower crime

King City is trying a new way to combat crime. It’s not more police but something taller that never moves. Can you guess? King City is looking to brighten up its community because residents in the area said the street lights are too dim or some streets don’t have lights at all.

“Few streets that people walk down are bigger streets, that need substantial lighting at night and there are several streets that I wouldn’t recommend people walking down because there is no lighting there,” said King City resident, Cindy Dodge.

Thursday crews with PG&E began installing new LED lights which will save the city $10,000 on its energy bill and brighten up roadways.

“We did a citizens survey last month and lighting in the city was ranked the third highest that people wanted to see done,” said King City Mayor, Rob Cullen.

Mayor Cullen said some of the streets are about 100 years old and light poles have never been put in.

King City plans to install 112 new street lights and Vivian Street happens to be one of the locations. Vivian Street doesn’t have any street lights and it’s also where one of the city’s most recent shootings occurred. Neighbors in the area said because it was so dark, they couldn’t see anything out their windows, all they could hear were gun shots.

“Crimes of convenience often committed in the night time, what I mean by that. If there’s an opportunity that presents itself better lighting throughout the community can reduce those occurrences,” said King City Interim Chief, Darius Engels.

King City hopes to add more light poles in the coming months. But for now, PG&E crews will continue working on existing poles and change the bulbs out to LEDS.

“We’re expecting this project to end within the next week. Once we’re wrapped up here, we’re moving on to Greenfield, Soledad, and Hollister. This project is very important because it improves safety not only for drivers but also for pedestrians and public safety in general,” said PG&E spokeswoman, Mayra Tostado.