Lock the Front Door: Chief Jared Rinetti on Staying Safe at Open Houses

Most mornings at this council are about the market. Our October 15 guest talked about the job itself: that walking into strangers' homes, often alone and sometimes after dark, carries a risk most of us have learned not to think about.

Jared Rinetti has been Union City's Chief of Police since 2018. He started in law enforcement in 1998 and has worked patrol, investigations, community policing, school resources and SWAT. The Union City Chamber of Commerce named him Government Employee of the Year in 2005 and again in 2019, and he is a past president of the Alameda County Chiefs of Police and Sheriffs' Association. Susan Munkner introduced him.

He opened by saying he is part of Bay East by marriage. His wife is a REALTOR®, so is his sister, and his uncle started Rinetti & Co. in San Leandro. He is scheduled to retire next year, and he hopes to end up in one of our seats, helping his wife with her business.

Union City, by the numbers

When he started, around 1998, Union City saw roughly 3,000 to 3,200 Part 1 crimes a year, the major ones: homicide, rape, assault, robbery. Last year it was about 1,500, half of what it was. Crimes against people dropped another 30% last year, he said, and crime at Union Landing fell by half.

He has also stayed a long time by police standards. In California, he said, chiefs typically last two or three years before they move on, which makes him the longest-serving chief in Alameda County today. The department is fully staffed, hiring ahead, and has kept one of the lowest vacancy rates around, even through the hard years.

District policing is the part worth knowing if you sell there. The city is divided into four districts that match its council districts, and each one has a lieutenant. Find the district on the department's website and you have someone who knows the area, its issues and its problems. If something keeps coming back (his example was a neighborhood park where people moved after a vacant building was cleared), you connect with the district commander once, instead of calling the police every day, and they work on it until it is solved.

Behind it is the one idea he chose to put at the center when he became chief: service from the heart, serving others with care, compassion and empathy. It starts, he said, with how the leadership treats people inside the building, and an organization that does that will do it naturally when it leaves the building.

The open house

He asked who lives in, or has sold in, Union City. Most of the room raised a hand. Then he got to the part that had people lining up to talk to him afterward.

• Don't do it alone if you can help it. His wife usually has a lender, or someone she is training, at her open houses, and if not, he goes. He especially wants women to have someone with them.
• When you can't have company, lock the front door. At a slow open house, the kind where you expect two or three groups, keep the signs out, lock the front door and sit in the front room where you can see who is coming. If the people coming up the walk don't feel right, you do not have to open the door. You are allowed to be in the restroom. You are allowed to be on a phone call.
• Know what a group is after. At one of his wife's open houses a car parked, one man went into the side yard to look around, went back to the car, and then another got out. She kept the door locked. The agent holding an open house down the street had let the same group in, and once inside they split up, some upstairs and some down. In an occupied home they look for cash and jewelry, and, a big one, prescription medication. They know you cannot be in three places. With two of you, one can go upstairs and offer to show them around, and nobody is going through the medicine cabinet.
• You don't owe anyone the door. In his view, and he was careful to say he is not an expert in selling homes, serious buyers rarely need an open house: they are working with agents and booking appointments. If you are not comfortable, you do not have to let someone in.
• Have a way out. If it is going sideways, leave the house, call 911 and let the police deal with it. If people are just wandering in a way you do not like, have a line ready: something came up, it's a family emergency, I need to lock up now, please come back another day. Then leave.
• Tell your sellers up front. Selling their home is a priority, and so is safety. If you get a bad feeling, you will get people out and reschedule, and in some places it may make more sense to show by appointment only.
• At a showing, look before you go in. If a light is on that should not be, walk the perimeter first. In the dark it is easier to see in from outside than for anyone inside to see out. If the house looks ransacked, or you see someone, call the listing agent and ask whether anyone is supposed to be there. If not, call 911.

Questions from the room

Should you carry something? Pepper spray, he said, is a great idea. He also told the room that case law on concealed carry permits has changed, and that he approves them in Union City: an applicant completes an online psychological exam and a firearm safety course and pays the fees, and he could not recall turning anyone down. Many applicants are women, and some are REALTORS®. He was clear that he was not telling anyone to go buy a firearm. A permit holder does not have to tell anyone they are carrying, he said, though schools and some medical facilities are off limits and usually say so. A member offered another option: a key-chain alarm that lets out a deafening sound at the press of a button, which she prefers because most people are not trained to use a gun.

A tip from Home Alone. A member shared a trick from someone he knows: a Bluetooth speaker in another room that, when someone makes her uneasy, plays a man's voice saying everything is OK. She got the idea from the movie. The chief's answer: if your sixth sense says something is wrong, leave the house, and call someone, or the police.

Cameras on a vacant listing. His wife once opened the door of a vacant, staged listing in Fremont to find the staging thrashed and a camp set up in the kitchen and family room. After the cleanup and a police report, they had the Wi-Fi turned back on and, with the sellers' OK, plugged in two small portable Ring cameras, one by the entry and one by the primary bedroom. Every coming and going pinged his phone. They put up video surveillance signs at the front and the back, and whoever it was never came back. He suggests a small "home under video surveillance" sign at the entry of every open house, camera or not. It gets people thinking.

Homelessness. Asked whether the city does more than move people along, he said the department leads with outreach: a shelter, counseling, food. Most of the time it is turned down, and then comes enforcement, within laws that protect individual rights. The Alameda County point-in-time count tracks the unhoused population by city and year, and Union City's went down. His advice is to call even when it is not a crime, so outreach can be offered.

Keeping squatters out of a vacant listing.

• Put up surveillance signs.
• Use portable cameras that alert your phone, if you can keep the Wi-Fi on.
• Put lamps in different rooms on Wi-Fi or timer plugs, one coming on at 8 PM and another at 5 AM, so the house looks lived in.
• Drive by a couple of times a week, and report a problem the moment you see it. Someone who has been living there a while can establish standing, and then a lawyer may tell you that you need an eviction notice.

How do they get in? The last question came from a newer agent. In the cases he has seen, they break in: a jimmied window, a forced door. And then there is the pet peeve of every listing agent. When his wife drives by after a showing to check, he said, about half the time a back door or a side door has been left unlocked. Always check every door.

He left his cards at the front and stayed afterward to answer more questions.

Watch it

The recording is on the council's YouTube channel. The chief's talk starts about 26 minutes in, where Susan introduces him.

Guest speaker · October 15, 2026Staying safe at open houses0:0025:20Union CityOpen housesQuestionsCamerasSquatters25:20Pop outThe council streamed the meeting on Facebook Live, and Tom Bigley posted the recording to YouTube. This opens where Susan Munkner introduces the chief and runs to the last question. Press play to watch it right here, pop it out anytime, or watch it on YouTube.

The rest of the morning

First-timers. Himabindu, Bindu for short, a software developer for years and now a new REALTOR®, came because of her dad; her favorite dish to cook is chicken biryani, and her family is one or two continents short of all seven. Cho of eXp Realty, a mentee of Glenn Riggs, used to be a grip in the film industry. Later came Penny, sent by her friend Michelle; Lisa Torres of Team Fast, invited by Dianna Novela, whose first job was at the original Tower Records on Broadway; Tejbir Sachdeva, Tej, who joined Keller Williams a month and a half ago; and Sisley, a loan officer, who came with Penny. Bring a first-timer next week and you get in free: ask Jim Lopez for a Golden Ticket.

Dignitaries. Chuck Edell, going on 50 years in real estate and about 30 of them with Bay East, told the room to join a Bay East committee: you will learn a heck of a lot. Anthony, the council's Bay East Foundation trustee, said the foundation had a strong year with two fundraisers, and was interviewing an incoming trustee that day.

Sponsors. Stacy Lin of Farmers Insurance, the first to jump into the Ruby pool, led the Farmers cheer and reminded the room that she writes life insurance and annuities with lifetime income as well as home, condo, renters and business policies, and that Farmers is writing condo policies again. Melrose Forde and Chuck Edell got a Ruby cheer too, and Anthony thanked the Emerald sponsors. Dianna Novela, who opened Novella Real Estate after 22 years in the business and specializes in new construction, became the council's newest sponsor that morning. The tiers are all on the sponsorship page.

One home was on the Super Tour: 34254 Quartz Ter, Fremont, presented by Sirisha Sinha of SKYE Residentials, her fifth listing in Ardenwood this year. It is the largest detached home in Forest Park right now, she said: four bedrooms, two and a half baths and 1,950 square feet on a corner lot, listed at $1,898,888. She also has a buyer who wants Ardenwood only (four bedrooms and three baths at least, with a bedroom and bath downstairs, up to $2.5 million), had offers due that morning on last week's Super Tour home, and brought two out-of-area listings: 4046 Alvarado Street in Pleasanton, a four-bedroom she called the lowest-priced detached home in the city at $1.3 million, and 5939 Idlewild Avenue in Livermore, a fully upgraded four-bedroom with room for an ADU. Eight homes were on tour that morning.

Announcements. Dianna, the Women's Council of REALTORS® Alameda County's 2026 events director and 2027 president-elect, thanked everyone who came to Wine, Chocolate and Friends the night before, and invited the room to its installation dinner, a black and white gala, on Friday, November 13; tickets and sponsorships are open. Scott Capen, back on his feet, invited everyone to the Olive Hyde Art Guild's Holiday for the Arts that weekend at the Olive Hyde Art Gallery, the guild's one fundraiser of the year, with work by about 78 local artists that supports the visual arts in local schools. The Viola Blythe Community Service Center in Newark is short on food: bring canned or packaged goods to the meeting next Thursday, and they will be delivered. Sirisha brought food to her broker's open house for the first time (the room voted cupcakes over fruit). Old Republic Title's Horror Stories webinar link is available from the committee. And nominations for Bay East's REALTOR® of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Affiliate of the Year and Good Neighbor awards close October 26.

Prizes. Penny took home the JPMorgan Chase tumbler, the umbrella went out just in time for the rainy season, and Tej drew the $100 Super Tour pot, which went to Jim Lopez.

Coming up: on October 22, Sarah Shimmin on Newark's down payment assistance; and on October 29, a title panel, Spooky Tales from Title. Costumes encouraged.

Thank you

Thank you to Chief Jared Rinetti for a practical morning on staying safe on the job, and for staying afterward to answer questions one on one.

We meet Thursday mornings from 8:45 in Fremont. Guests are welcome, and the speaker calendar has who is coming next.

Photographs by Scott Capen, Scott Capen Photography, and Harv Balu; each photo above names who took it. Words by Harv Balu. The meeting was streamed on Facebook Live and posted to YouTube by Tom Bigley.

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Sources

• The meeting: the council's recording of October 15, 2026, on YouTube. The chief's talk starts at 25:45.
• The chief: his biography on the City of Union City's Public Safety Working Group page, and the introduction read at the meeting.
• District policing: the Union City Police Department's District Policing page, with the district map and each district's lieutenant, and the department's home page.
• Concealed carry permits in Union City: the department's Concealed Carry Weapon License (CCW) page, with the steps and fees.
• Homelessness numbers: Alameda County Health's Point-in-Time Count.
• Food donations: the Viola Blythe Community Service Center in Newark.
• Holiday for the Arts: the Olive Hyde Art Guild.
• The Super Tour home: 34254 Quartz Ter, Fremont, from its MLS record.

Disclosures

• This post reports what was said at the October 15, 2026 meeting of the Tri-Cities Marketing Council. The chief's remarks are his own experience and views as he shared them, and figures such as the crime numbers are as he presented them.
• It is general information only. It is not legal, safety, security or firearms advice, and it does not endorse any product or service mentioned, including any brand of camera or alarm.
• Concealed carry licenses are governed by California law and issued by the police chief or sheriff where you live. Union City residents can start with the department's CCW page above; anyone else should ask their local police department or sheriff.
• If you are ever in danger, leave and call 911.
• Listing details are as the agents presented them and as the MLS showed them on October 15, and they can change. They are not an offer. Check with the listing agent.
• Photographs © 2026 Scott Capen Photography and © 2026 Harv Balu, each marked on the photo. Please ask before reusing them.