Crime Dips 15% in 7 Largest O.C. Cities

Serious crimes in Orange County’s seven largest cities plummeted an average of 15% during the first six months of this year, more than triple the national decline, according to FBI statistics released Sunday.

The new midyear Uniform Crime Reports showed that Anaheim had the largest drop in overall crime, at 23%. Even though reports of murder and forcible rape increased in the city in the first half of this year, there were dramatic decreases in larcenies, robberies and burglaries.

In the other six cities--Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Orange and Santa Ana--the decreases ranged from 10% to 19%.

Most other communities in Southern California reported substantial drop-offs as well. In Los Angeles, serious crimes fell 15.2%.

Across the nation, serious crimes reported to police declined 4% during the first half of this year compared with the first six months of 1996, the FBI said. Murders and robberies were down 9%.

The reduction in crime, part of a trend that began several years ago, took place in all regions of the country, with the West and Midwest each down 5%, the Northeast down 6% and the South down 3%. Also, the nation’s major cities--those with populations exceeding 250,000--registered an overall decline in serious crimes of 6%.

The FBI defines serious crimes as both those involving violence--murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault--and those involving property--burglary, larceny/theft and motor vehicle theft.

The overall drop in violent crime for the first half of 1997 was 5%; the dip in property crime was 4%.

In a statement, U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said, “Crime has been falling for several years because policymakers, law enforcement and ordinary Americans are coming together to do the right thing.”

She listed several factors as contributing to this trend, ranging from an increase in community policing to the building of more prisons “for people who deserve to be in jail for a long time.”

Local officials agreed.

In Santa Ana, overall reported crime dropped 10%, and all categories saw reductions except forcible rape, which increased. Police Chief Paul M. Walters said the most significant change came when the city opened its own jail in January.

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Since then, Santa Ana has been able to hold onto offenders long enough to discern their true identities and determine whether they are wanted on other charges. Before, they were routinely released from the crowded county jail after receiving citations to appear later in court--all too often after giving false names, Walters said.

Whereas those suspects would go out and commit more crimes, Walters said, they now cool their heels in the city jail while awaiting their court dates.

“These are very good indicators,” he said of the FBI statistics. “It makes me feel more assured we’re doing the right thing.”

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. also credited the city’s after-school programs that are designed to keep children active and out of trouble, as well as the cooperation of residents with community-oriented policing efforts. In community policing, officers assigned to specific neighborhoods work with residents to fight and prevent crime in their areas.

“The community’s got to be part of it,” Pulido said. “It’s really become a team effort. There’s a lot of people out there who are just trying to participate and be part of the solution.”

In September the U.S. Department of Justice recognized Santa Ana’s community-policing program as one of the best in the nation.

“I think we’re on the right track,” Pulido said. But “I don’t know how long we can continue--you can’t relax because the trends will reverse.”

Fullerton Police Chief Patrick E. McKinley said he attributes his city’s 11% decrease in crime in part to California’s “three strikes” law, which is just now showing its effects.

The 1994 law was designed to keep repeat criminals in prison by making them liable to 25-year-to-life sentences upon conviction for the third time on serious felony charges.

In the first half of this year, Fullerton saw slight increases in rapes and arsons, while murders, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts and car thefts all dropped.

McKinley also credited the decreases to community policing and the emphasis his department has placed on drug arrests.

“Narcotics, for the want of a better term, is the root of all evil,” he said.

“Substance abuse is a very, very big part of the crime problem,” McKinley said, whether it results in domestic violence or impaired driving by abusers, or in prostitution, burglary, robbery or theft committed to support habits.

Garden Grove saw an 11% decrease in overall crime during the first half of the year, Huntington Beach 14%, Irvine 12% and Orange 19%.

Other reasons cited by Reno for the decrease included:

* An emphasis by police, prosecutors, courts and the medical community on countering violence against women and domestic violence.

* A higher priority among law enforcement officials in attacking drug violence.

* An aging of the crack market. Acknowledging that she was speculating, Reno said, “It may be that enough people have realized how dangerous crack is, so that the second generation coming along has just rejected” the drug.

At the Los Angeles Police Department, Lt. Anthony Alba said, “We feel elated about the continuing decrease in crime.” Alba noted that violent crimes have been dropping locally for at least five years. “We attribute a lot of [the success] to the partnership we have with the community.”

LAPD officials said they hope a new style of policing being adopted throughout the department will lead to even greater crime reductions. Based on a successful model in New York City, LAPD officials have started using up-to-the-minute crime statistics to identify problem areas and better deploy resources.

Of the 15 cities in Los Angeles County with populations over 100,000, only Lancaster and Palmdale bucked the national trend and registered increases in serious crimes.

Palmdale’s crime rate jumped 13.4%, largely because of increases in robberies, aggravated assaults, larcenies and auto thefts. Serious crimes in Lancaster climbed 8.1% as a result of more robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries and larcenies.

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Elsewhere in the county, there were these declines in serious crimes: Burbank, 11.3%; Downey, 11.7%; El Monte, 10.1%; Glendale, 18.4%; Inglewood, 9.8%; Long Beach, 16.8%; Norwalk, 2.9%; Pasadena, 16.8%; Pomona, 16.6%; Santa Clarita, 17.3%; Torrance, 16.5%, and West Covina, 10.2%.

While most Southern California cities registered notable declines in serious crime, the title of safest large city in the nation again went to Simi Valley in Ventura County, which nudged out Thousand Oaks for the top spot.

The safe-city rankings are based on a ratio of population to crimes reported.

Simi Valley ranked as the nation’s most crime-free city in 1993 and 1996, while Thousand Oaks ranked first in 1994 and 1995. Between them, the two Ventura County communities have ranked first nationally in six of the last nine years.

Santa Clarita, another white-collar suburb, placed third in the nation for the first half this year, followed by Amherst Town, N.Y., a college community in suburban Buffalo, and three more California suburbs--Sunnyvale, Irvine and Orange.

Ostrow reported from Washington and Carney from Orange County. Times staff writers Matt Lait and David Rosenzweig in Los Angeles, Darryl Kelley in Ventura and Marcida Dodson in Orange County contributed to this report.

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Overall Improvement

Serious crimes have dropped furing the first six months of 1997 in Orange County’s seven largest cities. The chart shows the number of reported offenses and the percentage drop.

Anaheim, 6,061: -23%

Fullerton, 2,334: -11%

Garden Grove, 2,980: -11%

Huntington Beach, 3,324: -14%

Irvine, 1,873: -12%

Orange, 1,778: -19%

Santa Ana, 6,122: -10%

Total, 24,472: -15%

Source: FBI