BURBANK : Violent Crime in City Drops 20%

Violent crime in Burbank dropped by nearly 20% in the first four months of the year compared with the same period in 1993, Burbank police said.

The total crime rate for Burbank dropped by 6%. Neighboring Glendale saw the number of total crimes drop by more than 17%, even though the number of violent crimes--such as murder, rape, robbery and felony assault--had gone up slightly in the first quarter of this year, a Glendale crime analyst said.

“I don’t know what to account for it,” said Burbank Police Capt. Gordon Bowers about the statistics for his city. “We’re really pleased our violent crimes are way down.”

In Burbank, for the first four months of the year there were two murders, compared with three at the beginning of 1993. Rapes for the same period dropped from eight to five. Robberies dropped from 70 last year to 66 this year, and felony assault dropped from 103 to 75.

Theft, a nonviolent crime, was up slightly from 842 in the first four months of last year to 857 this year. Auto theft also went up from 344 in the same period last year to 365 this year, Bowers said.

In the first quarter of 1994 in Glendale, there was only one murder (as in the first quarter of 1993), rapes increased from five to six; robberies dropped from 110 last year to 95 this year; and felony assaults went up from 69 to 88.

Total violent crimes in Glendale went up from 185 for the first quarter of 1993 to 190 this year, said Jack Altounian, a Glendale crime analyst.

However, Glendale saw a drop for all categories of nonviolent crime including burglary, theft, auto theft and arson, from 2,097 for the first quarter of 1993 to 1,698 for the first quarter of 1994, a decrease of 19.1%.

“Probably, the earthquake had an effect,” Altounian said, referring to the drop in nonviolent crimes. While Bowers did not discount the idea, he was not sure what effect, if any, the earthquake had on the crime statistics.