State’s Overall Crime Rate Drops 7.2%, Lungren Says : Law enforcement: Robberies and murders are down 13% for 1994, as serious and violent felonies decline for the first time in 11 years.

Crime in California dropped 7.2% last year compared to 1993, the third consecutive year that the state’s overall crime rate has fallen, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren said Friday.

Finalizing preliminary figures issued in January, Lungren said the drop in crime was led by a 13.4% reduction in robberies and a 13.3% decline in murders.

A state Department of Justice spokesman said it was the first time in 11 years that all six categories of serious and violent felonies measured by the state had declined.

The department said reductions occurred last year in the categories of forcible rape, 6.1%; aggravated assault, 1.6%; burglary, 8.8%, and car theft, 5.8%.

In a statement, Lungren, a potential GOP candidate for governor in 1998, said the lower crime rate reflected a mixture of several ingredients, including a growing confidence of citizens in the ability of law enforcement to protect them.

Lungren had said earlier that public confidence in police suffered a serious wound in the 1992 Los Angeles riots when the Police Department retreated as vast parts of the city were seized by looters and set on fire by arsonists.

He credited a 6.6% decline in gun sales in 1994 for helping to depress the crime rate. Firearms purchases skyrocketed to record levels after the riots.

Lungren also said that implementation of the 14-month-old “three strikes” prison sentencing law for repeat felons has shown results. He said under the stiffened penalties law, criminals are serving longer terms or “leave our state altogether to avoid California’s tougher approach.”

“People are seeing that the justice system is no longer a revolving door,” Lungren said.

Secretary of State Bill Jones, who as a legislator co-authored the “three strikes” law, also cited the statute as a significant reason for reduced crime.

Lungren said that while California was a “somewhat safer” place last year, additional steps must be taken. He called for enactment of “truth in sentencing” state legislation that would require felons to serve most of their sentences.