Violent Crime Up; Homicide Record Looms...

Violent crime in San Diego increased in the first six months of the year because of drugs and gangs, Police Chief Bob Burgreen said Wednesday.

Rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and homicides are up 25% over the same time last year, but overall crime has dropped 4% because property crime--burglaries, thefts and auto thefts--is down 7.6%.

Property crime accounts for most of the crime in the city, “so those figures tend to skew the crime rate,” Burgreen explained to a City Council committee.

Homicides, up 19.7%, are heading for a record by year’s end, Burgreen said. Rapes increased by 6.1%, and aggravated assault rose 23.4%. Robberies jumped 30.9%.

However, auto theft, traditionally a big problem in the city, dropped 14.5%, and theft decreased by 7.6%. Burglaries were down 2.5%.

Downtown has the highest crime rate in the city, Burgreen said. The crime rate in that area is 81 per 1,000 residents, contrasted with 11 per 1,000 residents citywide. Burgreen said downtown traditionally has a lot of crime because most of the social agencies are there. Many “very aggressive and confrontational” transients are responsible for the problems, Burgreen said.

Gangs and drugs, however, are at the root of most violent crime in San Diego, he said.

Gangs were responsible for 11 of the 79 homicide cases so far this year, contrasted with four cases last year. Drive-by shootings have increased to 35 cases, a 30% increase over last year. In July, there were 11 more shootings.

Police made 1,043 narcotics-related arrests this year, served 188 search warrants and responded to 1,508 citizen complaints of narcotics activity. About $2.2 million in currency and $3 million in property have been confiscated.

According to police figures, the rate of violent crime has nearly doubled since 1985. At 10.1 violent crimes per 1,000 residents for 1990, San Diego ranked lower than Los Angeles and San Francisco, which had 23.7 and 15.9 crimes per 1,000 people, respectively. San Jose had 5.9 crimes per 1,000 residents in 1990, according to statistics provided by the state Department of Justice.

To fight crime, San Diego police are gradually returning to the “beat concept,” Burgreen said. “The officers will be dealing with the root of problems” by talking to landlords and business people in drug-plagued areas and enlisting their help in cleaning up neighborhood crime.

Police also will foster programs to discourage youths from joining gangs or taking drugs, he said.

“You can’t just arrest a problem and drag it off to jail, because it’s going to be out the next night,” he said.

Burgreen, however, told council members that he wants a jail more than he wants police officers.

Frequently there is insufficient room at the jail to hold a suspect until arraignment, Burgreen said. Many suspects fail to show up for their arraignments. Although warrants are issued for their arrests, about 3,000 warrants are “kicked out” and are outstanding at the end of each month, he said.

A 200-bed pre-arraignment jail that Burgreen championed has been approved and will be built on Otay Mesa. It could be ready for use as early as next year.

In a related development, City Councilman John Hartley Wednesday called for the creation of a task force charged with finding ways to expand the use of private detention facilities, work furlough programs and other alternatives to conventional jail cells.

“San Diego’s overcrowded jails demand action by the city now,” Hartley said. “We need more jail beds, but we also have to be more creative in how we use those beds and look at the alternatives.”

Times staff writer Barry M. Horstman contributed to this report.