O.C. Murder Rate Is Lowest in a Decade

Orange County’s murder rate last year was the lowest it’s been since 1987.

But officials concede they are as unsure about the reasons why as coroner’s investigators who still can’t specify the cause of nine other deaths last year.

“It has to be just a whole combination of things that make these numbers go down,” said Lt. Ron Wilkerson, an Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman. “As much as I’d like to give law enforcement all of the credit, I know there’s a million other contributing factors.”

Last year, 125 people died at the hands of another, a 30% decrease from 1995, and the lowest rate since 1987, when 99 homicides were reported in Orange County, according to the Annual Statistical Report released Wednesday by the county coroner’s office.

Coroner’s officials were called upon to determine causes of death for the 15,959 people who died last year in Orange County. More than half were attributed to natural causes.

Of the remaining deaths, 400 were caused by accidents, not counting traffic-related causes. Traffic fatalities and suicides combined accounted for 428 additional deaths.

Some deaths remain a mystery.

While authorities were unable to pinpoint what killed nine of those people, the circumstances in those incidents range from trauma cases to natural deaths.

Orange County’s homicide rate began climbing in 1987 and didn’t slow until it hit an all-time high in 1993 with 218 killings.

The figures have since crept back down, and officials expect the trend to continue this year. Eighty-four homicides have been investigated by Orange County law enforcement agencies since January.

“It’s certainly looking better for everyone,” said Anaheim Police Sgt. Joe Vargas, whose department, along with Santa Ana’s, has traditionally borne the brunt of the county’s homicides. “What we’re getting good at is stopping the little stuff before it gets out of hand.”

In trying to explain the welcome trend, police and prosecutors suggest that a broad range of law-enforcement efforts have helped curb violence, including the Tri-Agency Resources Gang Enforcement Team, or TARGET, which put nearly 200 active gang members under surveillance in Santa Ana last year.

A similar strategy was started in Anaheim, where gang-related killings dropped from 10 in 1995 to just one in 1996, according to the report.

In Santa Ana, the efforts have helped bring gang-related killings down from 46 in 1995 to fewer than half that in 1996, said Sgt. Bob Clark, a department spokesman. So far this year, 13 of the city’s homicides have involved gangs.

“With other murders, you don’t know things ahead of time, like when a robbery is going to be botched or an argument at home escalates into violence,” Clark said. “But gangs are different. You can see things before they happen, you know the areas where they occur and you can start to head things off.”

Still, some officials said murder statistics are nearly impossible to interpret because they can fluctuate and soar again any time.

While Orange County’s falling homicide rates mirror national trends, they can change at any moment, said Chris Brown, a former gang member who is now a criminal justice professor at Chapman University in Orange.

“When we hear about statistics like this it makes us feel all good about things,” Brown said. “But one incident, just one, could send the numbers right back up again.”

Besides a decrease overall in homicides, a drop in other categories, such as suicide and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome may indicate increased public awareness and better prevention programs, officials said.

The number of suicides, for example, dropped from 243 in 1995 to 220 last year, with men in their 30s representing 75% of the victims. The number of teenagers--eight--who committed suicide in 1996 did not change from 1995.

Pat Pina, executive director of Hotline Help Center, a suicide prevention program based in Anaheim, attributed the decline to better programs in schools and communities that provide support to troubled residents.

“There is a lot more education out there now than there used to be, and I think it makes a big difference,” Pina said. “The schools are much more involved in prevention programs.”

On the overall decrease, she added: “This is a good trend, and I hope it continues.”

Dr. Jack Sills, a UCI professor and SIDS expert, said the decline in infant deaths is encouraging because it suggests parents are embracing some of the preventive measures that recent studies have brought to light, such as having a smoke-free home and putting babies to sleep on their backs.

Seventeen children died of SIDS last year, compared to 26 in 1995. About 76% of the infants who died in 1996 were 2 to 4 months old.

“That is so great to hear,” Sills said. “Hopefully the education, these messages, will continue to get out there and the numbers will fall some more.”

The coroner’s report also showed drownings rose slightly in Orange County last year, with nearly half involving children in a backyard swimming pool.

There were 400 accidental deaths, a category that includes falls, fires, medical procedures and gunshot wounds among the causes. Traffic fatalities also continued to rise, with 208 people dying on Orange County roadways in 1996.

Seven people died while in police custody, 11 during officer-involved shootings and three in aircraft crashes. The number of confirmed AIDS-related deaths dropped to 204 from 317 the year before, according to the report.

Of the 125 homicide victims, 13 were children under age 14, including five infants who were shaken, suffocated or starved to death by relatives or caregivers.

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Shelby Grad.

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Homicide Down

Orange County homicides in 1996 were the fewest committed in a decade. And the number per 100,000 residents was also the lowest. Both marks peaked in 1993 and have been declining since:

Homicides: 125 (‘96)

Homicide Rate/100,000: 4.76 (‘96) Trauma Trend

Traumatic deaths--those caused by traffic and other accidents, homicide, suicide and a handful of undetermined causes--also declined, to the lowest number since 1984. Non-traffic accidents account for most of the trauma:

Trauma Deaths

1996: 984

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1996 Trauma by Type

Accidents (non-traffic): 41%

Homicide: 13%

Suicide: 22%

Traffic fatalities: 21%

Undetermined: 3%

Source: Orange County coroner