Major crimes trend lower in Glendale

Crime continued to decline for the first six months of this year in Glendale, a trend police officials attributed to real-time analysis and strong community partnerships.

Violent crime, including homicide, rape and robbery, dipped from 110 incidents from January to June last year to 90 for the same period this year, according to the Glendale Police Department. Property crimes also dropped from 1,567 to 1,539 incidents.

Police Capt. Carl Povilaitis said part of a successful crime-fighting strategy involved collaboration. That means officers are not only working closely with residents to address quality-of-life issues, but they’re discussing police investigations with each other to identify crime patterns.

“This doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” Povilaitis said.

Once a pattern has been spotted, investigators apply department resources to deal with an issue and “impact it in a positive direction for the long term,” he said.

While most offenses in the violent and property crime categories decreased, some offenses — petty theft and aggravated assault — increased slightly.

Petty thefts jumped from 716 last year to 742.

Aggravated assaults, which police officials said were mostly domestic violence assaults with great bodily injury, increased by only three incidents — from 52 to 55.

In domestic violence cases, Povilaitis said police are always looking for ways to intervene before a situation intensifies.

Fraud rose from 181 to 264 and identity theft rose from 159 to 185.

The number of calls made from the public for service also increased from 23,715 last year to 24,342.

“We are happy with the trend we have,” Povilaitis said.

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Follow Veronica Rocha on Google+ and on Twitter: @VeronicaRochaLA.

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