Crime’s Down in O.C., Up in State; Murder Takes the Biggest Dip

While crime rose across the state for the first time in eight years, most of Orange County’s largest cities bucked the trend during 2000 and recorded modest declines in violent and property crimes.

Murders showed the largest drop: There were 37 in Orange County last year, compared to 62 in 1999. Property crimes--including burglaries and vehicle thefts--dropped 3% while total violent crime declined by 5.7%.

The findings, in a report from state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, came as a surprise to some local law enforcement officials. They’ve warned for the last year that Orange County’s much-heralded crime drop during the 1990s would eventually come to an end. But with the economy slowing, officials said they don’t expect the county to enjoy the free-fall in offenses for much longer.

“We realize that crime can only be reduced so much,” Santa Ana Sgt. Raul Luna said.

The state study measured offenses in the county’s eight largest cities and unincorporated areas. Of those, Orange, Garden Grove and Huntington Beach showed the steepest crime drops. Fullerton, Irvine and Costa Mesa recorded slight increases in total crimes.

In Irvine, violent crime rose by 31.5% in 2000, led by a big jump in assaults. Lt. Sam Allevato attributed the increase to an uptick in bar brawls. and said the department has assigned an extra full-time officer to patrol the Irvine Spectrum Center as a measure to stem the problem.

In Santa Ana, police reported the first rise in murders since 1993. Last year, 17 people were slain, compared to 15 the year before. The number of robberies increased from 865 to 889.

But Luna noted that overall crime in the city continued to fall--by 4%--with healthy drops in vehicle thefts and larcenies. Crime rates in the city are now at their lowest level in more than a decade, he said.

Orange saw the biggest crime drop--nearly 14%. There was only one murder in the city last year, while the number of assaults fell from 359 to 232.

Statewide, serious crime increased by 3.5% in 2000, compared to 1999, in cities with populations of more than 100,000, according to Lockyer.

In each category, the number of offenses increased, with the largest jump being in motor-vehicle theft--8.9%. The number of homicides reported increased by 3.9% last year and the number of forcible rapes jumped by 6.6% in major cities.

“For the first time in eight years, we are reporting an increase in crime in California,” Lockyer said in a prepared statement. “We must continue to invest in new, improved investigative techniques and crime-prevention strategies so that the generation that needs more schools today doesn’t need more prisons tomorrow.”

Eric Monkkonen, a UCLA professor who studies crime, expressed concern about the rising statewide crime numbers.

“So many agencies have made so much effort for the past decade or two to drive crime down, [so] this is a real disappointing change,” he said.

“Some people think that crime has some sort of natural level and that we had reached that,” Monkkonen added. “I think it was still quite high and had a way to go.”

As the Los Angeles Police Department has reported in recent months, Los Angeles saw a large increase in homicides in 2000. Murders jumped by 27.5% last year, with 542 cases reported.

Overall serious crimes increased by 2.4% in Sacramento, 3.7% in Riverside, and 8.2% in Fresno. Offenses decreased by 3.9% in San Jose, 1.7% in San Francisco and .5% in San Diego.

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Against the Trend

Orange and Garden Grove showed the double-digit drops in total crime between 1999 and 2000, according to a state report released Tuesday. The percentage change between 1999 and 2000 crime figures for Orange County’s nine largest law enforcement jurisdictions:

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Total Violent Crime Property Crime Anaheim -2.6% -13.9% +3.6% Costa Mesa +0.7% -13.8% +6.0% Fullerton +4.2% -1.6% +5.9% Garden Grove -10.1% +2.4% -15.1% Huntington Beach -6.0% -5.3% -6.1% Irvine +4.8% +31.5% +0.6% Orange -13.7% -29.9% -5.9% Santa Ana -4.0% +0.1% -6.1% Unincorporated -1.1% +8.2% -4.6%

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Source: State Dept. of Justice