Crime Rate Rises Despite Fewer Murders : Statistics: L.A. police blame gang and drug activity ‘as the inner city comes to the outer city’ for increases in almost all categories.

Despite a decline in the number of murders, increases in almost every other offense helped boost reported crime by 8.2% in the San Fernando Valley for the first nine months of 1989, according to Los Angeles Police Department statistics released Thursday.

Searching to explain the crime increase in the mostly suburban area, police said the boost is part of a continuing trend thought to largely result from increased gang and drug activity in the Valley.

“It all goes hand in hand,” said Lt. Ron Seban of the Police Department’s Valley operations office. “It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure it out. The inner city is coming to the outer city.”

There were 75 murders in the first nine months of 1989 in the Valley, which includes five police districts serving more than 1.4 million people. In the first nine months of 1988, there were 82 murders, a 9% decrease during the same period this year.

There were few other positive notes in the crime statistics.

The number of rapes, auto thefts, auto-related crimes and other thefts increased. Aggravated assaults jumped 23% while robberies rose 17%.

Burglaries dipped slightly. Authorities suggested that the decrease may be an indication that property thieves more often steal cars or steal from cars rather than break into homes because penalties for auto-related crimes are less severe.

“They have figured it out,” Seban said. “It’s a lesser risk” to commit auto crimes.

The result is that burglaries in the Valley dropped 7.6% to 10,669 in the first nine months of this year, while auto thefts rose 9.4% to 14,428.

Reports of car break-ins and thefts from autos increased 10% to 14,925 cases in the same period.

In the other crime categories, robberies jumped from 2,829 to 3,313, aggravated assaults increased from 5,886 to 7,260 and reported rapes rose from 316 to 327.

Seban said it is difficult to pinpoint why crime fluctuates. But earlier this year, police in the Valley said that gang crime had tripled in recent years and that increased drug use, particularly after the advent of “crack” cocaine in the mid-1980s, has led to more property crimes as users seek to gain money for drugs.

“I can’t help but believe that this increase is directly related to the increase of gangs and drug activity in the San Fernando Valley,” Seban said.