Santa Ana Tops O.C. in Car Thefts : Crime: Statistics for 1993 show the city had county’s highest rate for the third straight year. Fresno leads the state among cities of over 100,000 people.

Santa Ana again posted Orange County’s highest stolen car rate in 1993, despite a second straight year of decreased auto theft activity, according to insurance industry statistics released Thursday.

The city had 1,360 stolen vehicles per 100,000 population, compared to 1,324 and 1,302 in Buena Park and Anaheim, according to data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau. It was the third consecutive year that Santa Ana posted the county’s highest auto theft rate, the data showed.

Fresno earned the dubious distinction as the auto theft capital of the West, second in the nation only to Newark, N.J., among cities with populations over 100,000. The nearby towns of Visalia and Turlock had the biggest jump in auto thefts.

The news came as no surprise to Fresno’s weary law enforcement officers.

“We were third last year,” Sgt. Cordell Hemphill, head of the city Police Department’s auto theft unit, said Thursday. “I guess we’re moving up in the world.”

Santa Ana’s ranking at the top of the county’s car theft statistics came despite small declines in the city’s theft rate between 1991 and 1993.

“There’s no one particular reason why the rate has gone down,” said Santa Ana Police Lt. Bob Clark, “I imagine it’s a number of factors. One of the most important is that we’ve been patrolling very aggressively.”

For example, awards are given to officers who recover the most vehicles, Clark said. Last year, well over half the vehicles stolen were recovered, usually within a month of the theft, he said. Public education on the need for anti-theft devices has also helped to deter thieves, he said.

Costa Mesa, however, saw an increase in vehicle theft between 1992 and 1993, the statistics showed. And vehicle theft rates continued a gradual increase in Huntington Beach and Anaheim, the data show.

In Costa Mesa, the auto theft rate climbed 8.2%, with 76 more vehicles swiped per 100,000 people than the year before. Huntington Beach also reported a 6% increase, with a rate of 652 vehicles stolen per 100,000 people in 1993.

The auto theft rate in Garden Grove, Orange and Westminster also rose slightly in 1993, though the figures have declined since 1990.

*

Although the nation as a whole and some big cities such as Los Angeles and New York have seen a slight dip in car thefts, the stealing of cars has skyrocketed in Fresno and elsewhere in the San Joaquin Valley.

In Turlock, the theft rate doubled between 1990 and 1993, according to the study. Visalia’s vehicle theft rate soared 72%; Modesto’s rose nearly 60% in the same period.

In Fresno, the theft rate in 1993 was nearly six times higher than the national average. San Bernardino and Sacramento were the only other California cities ranked among the 25 cities with the highest rates. Los Angeles, continuing a trend that began this decade, recorded nearly a 10% drop in vehicle thefts in 1993.

So why does Fresno, the hub of the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley, produce so many car thieves? One out of every three residents is on some form of public assistance, officials point out. Youth gangs, which police say account for more than half of the vehicle thefts, are growing. The city has sprawled rapidly and public services such as police and the juvenile courts cannot keep up.

But do not expect hand-wringing or a call to arms. Fresnans are chin-high in bad news. Every few months, it seems, another nationwide study ranks the city of 380,000 as the worst in this and the worst in that.

Last week, residents awoke to a front page headline that screamed: “Fresno arson rate highest in nation.” In 1994, 800 arson fires were recorded. Few of the crimes were solved because Fresno also happens to own the worst firefighter-to-citizen ratio of any big city in the country.

This week the news is auto theft, which connects to the fire problem because so many stolen cars are deliberately set ablaze, a crime that appears in official statistics as arson.

The number of vehicle thefts in Fresno in 1994 rose to 13,580. A decade ago, 1,760 vehicles were stolen. Hemphill has had to call on the same five detectives since 1989.

*

“We’re overwhelmed,” he said. “We average 70 to 80 arrests every month for auto theft. Juvenile offenders are our worst because the court treats them so leniently. They get a citation, and they’re right out the door.”

He recalled one youth who was pulled over in an Oldsmobile Cutlass, a favorite of car thieves. The youth was so nonchalant about his arrest that the officer wondered aloud how many vehicles the suspect had stolen in his short career.

“About 30,” the youth shot back. “This week.”

Hemphill said his colleagues up and down the Central Valley are seeing the same trends.

In Fresno, about 90% of the stolen cars and trucks are found. The ones that disappear are typically broken down at local “chop shops” and sold as parts or delivered whole to another state or Mexico.

“We’ve busted a half-dozen chop shops in the last year,” Hemphill said. “But it’s only the tip. We don’t have the time to stake out these places. And the beat goes on.”

Times staff writer Thao Hua contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Auto Theft Rise and Fall

The City of Commerce in Los Angeles County had the highest auto theft rate in the state for 1993, and Santa Ana led Orange County. A look at the number of vehicle thefts per 100,000 residents, ranked by 1993 theft rate:

Rate change City 1990 1991 1992 1993 1990 to 1993 STATE TOP City of Commerce 5,876 5,449 5,054 5,022 -14.5% Huntington Park 3,701 3,315 3,474 3,570 -3.5% Santa Fe Springs 3,131 3,295 3,467 3,317 5.9% Fresno 2,015 3,184 3,542 3,443 70.9% West Hollywood 2,074 2,571 2,269 2,443 17.8% ORANGE COUNTY Santa Ana 1,334 1,449 1,379 1,360 2.0% Buena Park 1,448 1,430 1,362 1,324 -8.5% Anaheim 1,245 1,144 1,258 1,302 4.6% Westminster 1,430 1,236 1,161 1,222 -14.6% Garden Grove 1,270 1,225 1,188 1,221 -3.9% Costa Mesa 1,045 1,184 927 1,003 -4.0% Orange 822 887 822 856 4.1% Huntington Beach 623 506 615 652 4.7%

Source: National Insurance Crime Bureau