Crime Drops Again Following First Increase in 10 Years

By Jorge Casuso

April 3 -- Despite tough economic times and a crime hike in neighboring Los Angeles, serious crime in Santa Monica dipped for the ninth time in ten years, although rapes and homicides increased, according to the latest crime figures released by police.

The total number of serious crimes reported dropped to 4,689 last year, from 4,909 in 2001, which saw the first increase in a decade. The 4.5 percent decline follows a nearly identical increase the previous year.

Robbery, aggravated assault, larceny/theft and grand auto theft declined, while homicide, rape and burglary increased, with the number of homicides jumping from two in 2001 to eight last year and the number of rapes rising from 24 to 33. In many, if not most of the homicides and rapes, the victim knew the perpetrator, making the crime difficult to prevent, police said

The overall decline in crime is especially noteworthy because it comes during an economic downturn, when crime is usually on the rise, and in a city surrounded on three sides by Los Angeles, where violent crime increased “significantly,” said Police Chief James T. Butts, Jr.

“We have a bad economy,” Butts said. “Other jurisdictions are reporting crime increases. We are not an island, so it’s particularly significant.”

The sharpest decline was in larceny/theft, which dropped 7 percent, from 3,020 in 2001 to 2,811 last year, according to the figures. Defined as the "unlawful taking, carrying, leading or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another," larcenies accounted for 60 percent of all major crimes committed last year.

“Larcenies are half of what they were ten years ago,” Butts said, adding that, “they have a big impact on the total serious crime picture.”

Butts attributes the decrease in larcenies to “more patrols, more police and a better crime analysis system. We don’t end up with the series of thefts.”

This is especially true of grand theft auto (which dropped from 515 in 2001 to 494 last year), in which theft rings account for most of the vehicles stolen, Butts said. The latest figure represents a 72 percent decrease from the 1,754 auto thefts in 1993 and is the lowest since 1963, Butts said.

“The crime analysis focused in on what cars were being taken, where they were being taken,” Butts said. “We now have a reputation as being a place you don’t take cars in.”

Theft rings -- which key in on cars whose parts are interchangeable from one year’s model to the next -- tend to focus on area such as Santa Monica, where “they’re likely to find something that they’re looking for,” Butts said.

“They’re looking for places with a lot of parking lots, cars and high end cars,” Butts said.

Robbery, which is committed by taking or attempting to take anything of value from a person by threat or force, dropped from 312 in 2001 to 299 last year, or a 4 percent decrease. The decline follows a 16 percent increase from 268 robberies in 2000.

Of the robberies, 36 were part of a series, including ten committed at gas stations, nine committed by suspects identified as wearing hooded sweatshirts and seven by the “laser light bandit,” Butts said.

In addition, 23 of the robberies were “Estes robberies,” which result when a suspect enters an establishment to commit petty theft, is confronted and uses force to flee, Butts said.

Aggravated assaults fell 3 percent in 2002, from 316 in 2001 to 307 last year. The drop continues a downward trend that saw such assaults reach the lowest number in more than 20 years, according to the statistics.

Although homicides rose dramatically and rapes increased, Butts said that in most of the cases the suspect knew the victim, making it difficult for police to prevent the crime.

In three of the homicide cases, a husband or ex-husband killed his wife, then committed suicide. In two cases the victim was killed by a boyfriend or ex-boyfriend. And in one case, a son killed his father. “They were quite spontaneous, vicious and violent,” Butts said.

All of the homicide cases -- which included a gang-related shooting in a parking lot north of the pier and the shooting of a transient by an auto mechanic shop manager on Pico Boulevard -- have been cleared, with the suspect being either arrested or committing suicide.

Of the 24 rapes and nine attempted rapes reported, many, if not most, of the victims also knew the perpetrator, Butts said. In all but one case, “the victim identified the suspect as an acquaintance, boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, ex-husband, friend, or the suspect was arrested,” Butts said.

In one attempted rape, the suspect has not been identified, Butts said.

Burglaries -- which declined steadily between 1994 and 2000 -- continued to rise, from 603 in 2000 to 720 in 2001 to 737 last year, according to the figures. Still, the number of reported burglaries -- which involve the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft -- was the fifth lowest since 1956, the earliest year crime records are available.

Butts attributes the general decline in robberies and burglaries to “a concerted effort over the last 11 years in working on enforcement of narcotics offenses.

“When people come to a town to buy narcotics, they tend to commit a crime of opportunity,” Butts said. “When you remove that element, you remove a lot of that opportunistic crime.”