Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : 1st-Quarter Statistics on Crime Mixed

The region had a mixed bag of crime statistics during the first quarter of the year, with murders down but rape, robbery and auto thefts up, combining for a 1% overall decline in reported major crime, sheriff’s deputies said Friday.

By geographic area, Palmdale had a 2% increase in reported major crime. Lancaster had a 2% decrease, and unincorporated areas had a 3% decrease, deputies said. Those comparisons between the first quarter of this year and the same period in 1992 tallied raw numbers of reported crimes.

But when deputies factored in a 5% increase in the valley’s population to 295,830, all three areas had declines in their per-capita crime rates. Palmdale’s fell from 154 to 146 crimes per 10,000 people. Lancaster’s fell from 168 to 159. And the rate in unincorporated areas fell from 77 to 73.

Sheriff’s officials called the results encouraging, saying various city anti-crime programs and greater community awareness of crime as a problem may be helping. In January, however, deputies reported overall crime in the region for all of 1992 was up nearly 17% over 1991.

In the latest results, the best news was a decline in murders from 11 in the first quarter of 1992 to four for the same period this year. The numbers in each area also dropped, from four to one in Palmdale, from two to one in Lancaster, and from five to two in unincorporated areas.

On the down side comparing the first quarter of 1992 with the same period this year, reported rapes in the Antelope Valley increased 19% from 26 to 31. Robberies increased 27% from 139 to 177. And auto thefts climbed 21% from 449 to 545, sheriff’s deputies said.