Business owners in Tacoma, Wash. are taking an electrifying new approach to combat criminals.
Aaberg’s Tools & Equipment Rental owner Alexx Bacon installed electric fences to deter criminals after a series of break-ins.
"Obviously people are very scared of it...which is what we wanted. We don't want anybody getting hurt. We want people staying off our property. That's why we put the original fence up. But we had to go to the electric fence as extra security," Bacon said on "Fox & Friends" Thursday.
Bacon said prior to installing the electric fence, he relied on a normal fence to protect his business. After numerous break-ins and continued damage to the fence, he decided he had to find a better alternative.
"It was just nightly break-ins, always middle of the night, waking me up, taking me away from home. Coming in, fences cut wide open, like in the camera there. Costly repairs. Every time I'd have to have an emergency fence repair, you're talking $1000, roughly to the point where I started driving around with a roll of fence seat in my car, and I'd fix it myself because it was being broken into so frequently, I couldn't stop it," he explained.
In addition to the fence damages and costly repairs, Bacon also lost thousands in goods ranging from small hand tools to employee trucks.
"It was just out of control," he said.
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Bacon decided to deploy 7,000 volts as back-up instead. According to the business owner, the electric fence is an annual subscription of upwards of $15,000. He explained he sees the fence as a "long-term" investment to help his property, noting he does not own the actual fence.
"It's just DC voltage. It runs off batteries. It's not hooked up to the power grid. It's painful to hit and it will continue to go. But...there's no amperage. It's not going to kill you," Bacon added.
The city of Tacoma has not been immune to the crime crisis plaguing many cities across the U.S. City data from May, however, noted a drop in homicides, violent crime, and property crime so far this year, which is being attributed in part to the hiring of more police officers.
Data from the Tacoma City Manager’s office posted in May shows that homicides dropped 35% so far in 2023, compared to the same time last year. In addition to violent crime being down 19.5%, burglaries are down 52.7% and property crimes are down 27.2%.
Since last May, the Tacoma Police Department went from being 55 police officers short of its ideal staffing level to 31.
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Despite the encouraging statements from local officials, the decrease in crime statistics provided by the city don't tell the full story, according to the head of the local police union, who says that the city is engaged in a "shell game" and that there is much more to be done.
"We're comparing this year's crime to record-breaking years the last two years, so it looks like a decrease, but if we take a step back, really, that's not what the community is seeing," Tacoma Police Union President Henry Betts said on "Fox & Friends First" in May. "Crime is still really high, we're still down a lot of cops."
While the data suggests a drop in crime, Bacon seemed to agree with Betts' statement that crime remains a persistent issue.
"We do have great police here in Tacoma, but their hands are tied. They're not allowed to do anything. Decriminalization is allowed everywhere. There is no illegal activity anymore. Unless you have money or you're business owner, then you can have illegal activity," he said.
"The criminals have been just set free and the police can't do anything about it. They're not allowed to. We got a really good push from the police. They're very helpful, they're very apologetic, but unfortunately they can't do anything."
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Nonetheless, due to the success he has found with using the electric fence, Bacon is urging the Tacoma City Council to consider allowing other businesses to use the fencing.
Currently, the fences are only allowed for use in industrial areas.
"City council's got to allow people to have this fence because it has just been absolutely amazing for my business," he said.
Fox News' Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
