Reporting, Fighting Crime in Costa Mesa

You recently printed your annual article on crime statistics. I and others have asked you to report accurately and completely on this issue, however, you fail to include any of the many variables necessary to draw adequate conclusions that are recommended by the Department of Justice regarding crime.

In every edition of “Crime in the United States” released by the U.S. Department of Justice appears a page titled “Crime Factors.”

The third paragraph reads as follows:

”. . . The strength (personnel and other resources) and the aggressiveness of a Jurisdiction’s law enforcement agency are also key factors. While information pertaining to the number of sworn and civilian law enforcement employees can be found in this publication, assessment of the law enforcement emphases is, of course, much more difficult. For example, one city may report more crime than a comparable one, not because there is more crime, but rather because its law enforcement agency through pro-active efforts, such as “sting operations,” identifies more offenses. Attitudes of the citizens toward crime and their crime reporting practices, especially concerning more minor offenses, have an impact on the volume of crimes known to police.

”. . . Valid assessments are only possible with careful study and analysis of the various unique conditions affecting each local law enforcement jurisdiction . . . .”

The page concludes with:

”. . . The reader is therefore cautioned against comparing statistical data of individual reporting units from cities, counties, metropolitan areas, states or colleges and universities solely on the basis of their population coverage or student enrollment . . . .”

To illustrate a point, the Costa Mesa Police Department is proud to claim that we arrest probably more drunk drivers than any other jurisdiction in Orange County. Not because we have more violators, but, because we want the streets to be safe for motorists, we work harder to get drunk drivers off the street.

We take reports on virtually all crime reported. We do this because we believe that our community deserves this level of service. We try to solve them too. We currently have a 42+% solvability rate, so we do a pretty fair job of it.

Simply stated, if citizens don’t feel confident in their police, they are reluctant to report crime. If people don’t report crime, how can we adequately deploy resources to deter it? We work hard to get people to report crime, and to gain their confidence that we will solve them.

The portrayal of Costa Mesa as a crime-ridden city is blatantly wrong. We do a good job and Costa Mesa is a very safe city. We don’t have more crime, we just report it better.

DAVID L. SNOWDEN

Chief of Police

Costa Mesa