Violent Crime Soars; City Heads for Murder Record : Lawlessness: Slight decrease in nonviolent crimes is offset by soaring murder, rape and robbery rates. Police blame drugs, gangs.

Fueled by chronic drug and gang problems, violent crime in San Diego has increased for the eighth straight year and threatens to set a new murder record by year’s end, Police Chief Bob Burgreen announced Wednesday.

But, although rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and homicides are up 19% over the same time last year, Burgreen said overall crime is down for the first time in six years because property crime--burglaries, thefts and auto thefts--has decreased.

The decrease is small--two-tenths of 1%--and is mostly caused by a 6.5% drop in burglaries. Burgreen told a City Council subcommittee Wednesday that the public has taken greater pains to secure homes to stop burglaries.

He attributed that concern, in part, to the presence of what police believe is a serial killer responsible for the murder of five women since January in the Clairemont-University City areas.

“People are taking safety precautions that they’ve never taken before,” he said. “They’re joining neighborhood watch groups, putting alarms in their homes, looking out for one another.”

Auto theft, one of the city’s worst problems, decreased for the first time in four years, he said, because of a special team of detectives fighting the problem.

Despite the decrease in property crime, the city will set a new murder record in 1990, Burgreen said. In 1988, the city had 144 murders. So far this year, the city has had 109 murders and, based on current projections, will have 145 by the end of the year, he said. The number of homicides--which includes accidental killings and police shootings--is higher.

City Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt said the escalating violent crime statistics have her worried.

“I personally do not feel safe in the city of San Diego, and, if I don’t feel safe, my thought is that many of our residents feel the same thing--especially in the area of violent crime, rape, homicide and aggravated assault,” she said. “There’s an increase in those four categories.”

Homicides are up 13.5%; rape is up 19.9%; robbery is up 20.2% and aggravated assault is up 18.5%.

To combat the problem, Burgreen said, he will shift officers to the city’s biggest problem areas, as he has done in assigning 26 investigators to find the serial killer. Burgreen also has assigned 12 homicide detectives to a multi-agency task force probing the deaths of 43 women, most of them prostitutes and transients, over the last five years.

He would not say where the shift in assignments would be.

Burgreen told Bernhardt that San Diego is still, for the most part, safe.

“By and large, you are safe in our city unless you are in areas where people are openly dealing drugs on the street,” he said. “Where that is not occurring, we have a very safe city.”

Convinced that education will stem drug-related violence, Burgreen wants to extend the Police Department’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, program now taught in the fifth or sixth grades to junior high school or high schools.

He said he would like to add to the 20 police officers who are now teaching the program in the city’s school system.

“This is the type of program that is going to turn this country around and turn this drug problem around,” he said. “I want to put more officers in the schools when I can afford to do it and still provide a reasonable level of service for people who call and need a police officer or an investigation done.”

In outlining the increase in violent crime, Burgreen blamed illegal drugs for most of the problem. He said 83% of all those booked into city jails on felony arrests have traces of illegal drugs on their systems.

More than one-third of the department’s $140 million budget goes toward fighting drugs or gangs, he said.

“There’s never been more availability of drugs than there is now,” Burgreen said. “The price has never been better. The purity has never been higher. The drugs are just terribly plentiful.”

Gang violence also plays a part in the crime upsurge. The city has 3,783 documented gang members and 34 gangs, according to a report Burgreen distributed Wednesday. The report said gang membership has increased 31% over last year.

Burgreen said crowded jails cannot hold drug dealers and gang members for long, and, as a result, the department sees repeat offenders placed under arrest again and again.

“Until we see the day that people who are dealing drugs are convinced (they will be) dealt with more strictly by the court system, we are going to continue to play with the same people over and over again,” he said.

“It’s not that we don’t know who the gang members are. We know every one of their names. We know what gang they’re in.

“It’s not that we don’t know where the drug dealers are. We know where they deal. We arrest them, we book them, we prosecute them, we convict them, and then we deal with them again in a few weeks because they’re back on the street.”

The mentally ill, many of whom should be in institutions, are out on the street because of cuts in health funding, he said.

“Just walk the streets of San Diego. See how many people are talking to light poles. They’re everywhere,” he said. “When I was a beat cop in the ‘60s, those people would have been institutionalized and given medical care. There’s no room for them now.”

Burgreen said he is not asking for more manpower, even though San Diego ranks last of the 10 most populous cities in officers per 1,000 population.

“Given limited resources, people like myself will have to figure out how to do with what we have,” he said. “That means we have to prioritize better than we have. We’re going to have to stop doing things that aren’t as important as other things.”

The Police Department’s budget represents 35% of the city’s general fund, which Burgreen said is just about right.

“I’m a realist. I realize what the tax base is. I realize what the needs of total government are, and I know what the city manager has in terms of money,” he said. “We have to use our resources as wisely and flexibly as we can.”