Kolender Reports 15% Increase in Major Crime

Major crime in San Diego has jumped 15.2% during the first three months of 1986 compared to the same period last year, a “steep increase” that may continue all year, San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender said Wednesday.

Addressing a San Diego City Council committee, Kolender blamed the increase on illegal aliens, drug trafficking and the overcrowded County Jail, which he said has become a “revolving door” that returns criminals to the street almost as soon as they are arrested.

Kolender also worried aloud to council members that terrorists may eventually enter San Diego through the “unprotected” international border. And he reported that his department has discovered Los Angeles street gang members muscling their way onto San Diego gang turf to sell drugs.

After delivering his sobering message to the council’s Public Services and Safety Committee, Kolender told reporters that he was not trying to “overreact” to the crime statistics because they may just reflect a “bad quarter.”

“We’ve had bad quarters before and it has evened out,” he said.

But when asked if he were optimistic that the trend would change, Kolender quickly and emphatically replied: “No.”

In 1985, major crimes increased 5.5% over the previous year.

The statistics disclosed Wednesday compare major crimes as identified by the FBI and committed from January through March, 1986, with the same period in 1985.

Leading the San Diego increases were auto thefts (up 43.8%), robberies (up 30.4%), aggravated assaults (25%) and larceny (11%). Homicides and rapes were down slightly.

Kolender blamed the increases on familiar causes, including illegal aliens, who he has said come across the international border from Mexico and use public transportation on their way to commit robberies and auto thefts. He also blamed drug users in need of money to feed their habits.

Kolender appealed to council members to support plans to expand the County Jail. He said 3,772 people apprehended during the first quarter for misdemeanors--including being under the influence of drugs, theft and failure to appear in court--were simply ticketed and released when taken to the jail door.

Repeat misdemeanor offenders are jailed only after they run up cumulative bail of $3,000, a threshold that gives prostitutes, for instance, a grace period before they know when they have to skip town, he said.

Kolender also said that the surge in auto thefts is the work of car-theft rings inclined to take BMWs, Volkswagens, Chryslers and Nissans. In a two-month period, he said, a special police detail arrested 10 people and recovered 40 cars.

Statistics show that crimes by and against illegal aliens along the border have increased, with six murders, three rapes and 91 robberies being reported.

The border, Kolender added, may be the source of yet another worry: terrorism.

With people from 40 nations crossing the border, and more than 70,000 illegal aliens apprehended last month alone, there is ample opportunity for terrorists to enter the United States through San Diego, Kolender said.

“It seems to me . . . with the attacks on Americans in other countries . . . that the next logical step is to bring that to the United States,” Kolender said after the hearing. “Because of our open borders, we are vulnerable if they want to do that. I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but if it does, we’d like to be as prepared as possible.”

Kolender said the department’s SWAT team is placing extra emphasis on training for “high-risk field situations,” which could encompass a criminal holding hostages.

Lt. Dan Berglund, who was relieved Monday of commanding the department’s SWAT team, said the special unit is working with military and federal authorities to identify possible “sites of terrorist acts,” including where public officials or large crowds assemble.

Kolender also told council members that his department has detected the first signs of Los Angeles street gang members invading the turf and drug business of San Diego street gangs.

Just like salesmen trying to “break open new territory,” at least 19 members of an East Los Angeles gang have been detected since February selling “rock” cocaine in San Diego, Lt. Bill Howell said after the hearing.

Howell, in charge of the department’s special investigation section, said there have been unconfirmed reports of fights between Los Angeles and San Diego gang members over the share of the drug business.

“We’ve yet to make any significant arrests as far as violence goes,” said Howell. “But we definitely do not have a situation of a horde of Mongols riding over the mountain ridge.”

Despite the increase in crime, Kolender said, San Diego still compares favorably with other cities with populations of more than 500,000. In per capita crimes, only Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Jose and Milwaukee are safer, statistics show.