Homicide Rate on Way to New Annual Record

Although new figures indicate that San Diego has the lowest murder rate among the 10 largest cities in the country, the city is approaching a record year for homicides, a police official said Friday.

“It’s on its way to being the worst, if we continue at the rate we’re going now,” said Capt. Dick Toneck, who oversees investigations for the San Diego Police Department.

Because of the increase in murders, Toneck said that, for the first time ever, the department has installed two lieutenants to head its homicide division.

They are Paul Ybarrondo and Dan Berglund, who replace Lt. Gary Learn. Learn has been reassigned as head of Criminal Intelligence.

“We’ve had a problem of increased homicides over the years,” Toneck said. “One lieutenant has to review the cases, make sure all of the bases are covered and then go out on a majority of the cases. With two, it’s easier to manage the detective teams and provide a good, overall view. It’s an improvement.”

Toneck said 1988 was a record year for homicides, with San Diego recording 163.

So far this year, the department has investigated 92, although Toneck pointed out that these are homicides “of all kinds” and not necessarily actual murders.

The cases include killings that may or may not have been accidental and shootings by police officers in the line of duty, for example. Homicide refers to one person killing another.

Actual murders--or the intentional taking of a life--are also being charted at a record pace, police figures show. From January through June, San Diego recorded 66 actual murders, as compared to 57 for the same period last year, a 15.8% increase.

The city’s worst year for murders was 1988, with 144 people slain, said Donna Guevara, an analyst in the Police Department’s crime analysis unit. She said 1989 was the second-worst, with 121.

The city’s murder rate in 1988 was also its highest, at 13.6 per 100,000 people, Guevara said.

Just-published FBI figures of murder rates in the 10 largest U.S. cities put San Diego, the sixth-largest city in the nation, as the lowest, Guevara said. San Diego’s 11 murders per 100,000 population was far below that of Dallas, for instance, which charted 35.2 per 100,000. Phoenix’s murder rate was 13.4 per 100,000; San Antonio’s was 17.7.

At 60 per 100,000, Detroit recorded the highest murder rate in the nation, followed by Dallas (35.2), Philadelphia (28.8), Houston (26.8), New York (25.9), Los Angeles (25.5) and Chicago (24.8).

Toneck said the city should not console itself with a low per-capita murder rate. He called the number of murders in San Diego “disturbingly” high.

“When it comes to causes, you can put your finger on a whole bunch of things--drugs, domestic violence and the city’s incredible growth,” Toneck said. “Plus, it seems like everybody these days has got a gun or a weapon of some kind.

“As a city, we’re becoming a lot more violent, and there’s no singular reason for it.”