Oceanside

The crime rate continues to fall in Oceanside, Police Chief Larry Marshall told the City Council Wednesday. He attributed the decrease to progress on downtown redevelopment, a more effective police department and a growing citizen commitment to crime prevention.

The total number of indexed crimes--homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, auto theft and arson--dropped only slightly during the first six months of 1985, to 2,327 from 2,352 for the same period last year.

But violent crimes were considerably fewer--20 rapes were reported this year compared to 38 in the first six months of 1984. And Marshall said that statistics in downtown Oceanside, historically a tough, crime-ridden sector, were particularly encouraging.

“As redevelopment has progressed, the crime picture in central Oceanside has continued to improve,” Marshall said. He noted that between Jan. 1 and June 30, 1983, there were 352 crimes committed in the downtown area, compared to the 306 that have occurred this year. (Oceanside was not a member of the Automated Regional Justice Information System, which keeps such statistics, in 1984.)

In addition, Oceanside’s crime rate is dropping further and further below the countywide rate, Marshall said. In Oceanside, 50.2 residents per 1,000 were victims of crime during the first six months of 1985, while the figure was 58.0 per 1,000 for the county, he said.