San Jose may have once bee known as one of America's Safest cities, but my how things have changed.

Crime rates in the Silicon Valley have officially surpassed average rates in both the United States and California, but arrests are fewer and farther between.

A report released by an independent auditor found found that police response times for certain types of emergency have nearly doubled, the department is clearing fewer and fewer crimes.  Some question whether low morale among officers is among the leading culprits.

Many officers are jumping ship to take better paying jobs at other agencies, according to sources within the department, and current Mayor Chuck Reed thinks this could be the result of a decade of skyrocketing law enforcement costs.   The quality of services has fallen, he said, and crime rates have gone up.

He feels the San Jose Police Department could greatly benefit from hiring additional boots on the ground.

The auditor's results are astounding.

In 2003, for example, major crime rates in San Jose were more than 35 percent below the national average.  Today, it's one percent above US average rates and 3 percent higher than the statewide average.

In 2007, police officers made more than 36,000 arrests.  Last year that number fell to about 17,000.

In addition, response times for calls related to gang disturbances and attempted rates have jumped from just over eight minutes in 2005 to more than 20 minutes for the current day.

The clearance rate for major crime cases has fallen to about 30 percent, which is about 20 percent below the national average.

Fixing the problem may be easier said than done.  Taxpayers don't want to foot a larger bill but on the flip side of that coin, they want the problem fixed.

The police department is also dealing with internal challenges, such as reduced pensions and a 10 percent pay cut that was implemented in 2012.   As it stands, the number of active duty officers has fallen to about 920, they said, which is likely tied to the decreased arrests.

Although the City Council has recently approved reversing that pay cut, the next mayor is going to have their work cut out for them.  A total of six candidates have reportedly tossed their hat into the ring and their solutions range from ramping up the police force to finding ways to do more with an already constricted budget.

Residents say they feel less safe today than they did two years ago and a recent study found that their confidence in the police department has also ticked down.