More Safety in the Numbers : Violent crime is down in O.C., due in part to community policing

The latest crime statistics for Orange County for the first half of this year contain both good news and bad. The encouraging part is another decline, in some places dramatic, in violent crimes in Orange County’s biggest cities. The unfortunate aspect is an increase in the most violent crimes--homicides and rapes--in several of those cities.

The sound of gunfire in the night and reports of armed robberies were all too common occurrences not too long ago. But this month one of the annual compilations of crime statistics showed that robberies dropped 43% in Huntington Beach and 32% in Orange. Aggravated assaults reported to the Sheriff’s Department, which patrols unincorporated areas and some cities, were down 30%.

Most criminologists believe one reason for the overall drop in crime is a drop in the number of people in their late teens and early 20s, the years in which people are most likely to burgle, rob and kill. That’s the sort of demographic wrinkle that can change quickly.

But the shift to community policing also deserves credit.

Stan Knee was on the Garden Grove police force for 24 years, five of them as chief, before taking over the job of top cop in Austin, Texas, last week. Knee said one of the accomplishments of his tenure as chief was the spread of community policing. He noted that a key reason for the department’s success in battling crime was the cooperation it received from residents. That is essential for police work, especially community policing, which emphasizes police officers actively patrolling and getting to know residents and business people.

Having those sorts of human assets in the community gives police another tool. Becoming a familiar face on the beat, building up trust, is preferable to waiting in a station house for calls for help.

The police chiefs in Anaheim, Santa Ana and other cities also cited their efforts at community policing in helping reduce crime. Irvine Police Chief Charles S. Brobeck noted that residents “are eyes and ears” of the community, calling in information that lets police step in before situations get worse. Orange County also has benefited from a vigorous anti-gang program in the last several years, a joint effort of police, prosecutors and probation officers.

Unfortunately, despite several years of decreases in the rate of violent crime in the county, residents still rank crime as the No. 1 problem. Increases in homicides and rapes fuel the fear of crime, even if other violent crimes such as robberies and assaults decline. But police, with help from the communities they serve, appear to be on the right path to making the county safer, an encouraging trend that benefits everyone.