Serious
Crime Drops Downtown, Shoplifting Soars |
By Jorge Casuso
Second in a series
August 28 – Reports of serious crime Downtown fell
last year, but a tanking economy could slow, if not reverse, the
downward trend in the bustling shopping district, which has seen
reports of shoplifting soar in the first half of this year, according
to the latest crime statistics.
Mirroring a citywide trend that saw serious crime drop to the lowest
levels since the mid-1950s, the number of serious crimes -- defined
by the FBI as homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary,
motor vehicle theft, larceny and arson -- dropped Downtown, from
795 in 2006 to 692 last year. ("Serious
Crime Drops to Record Lows," August 5, 2008)
Still, reports of shoplifting are on pace to double this year,
with 112 reported incidents in the first half of 2088, compared
to 143 in all of last year.
The spike was in large part due to a dramatic increase in shoplifting
on the Third Street Promenade – with the 78 incidents reported
in the first half of 2008 exceeding the 73 that took place on the
bustling strip in all of last year.
The dramatic spike is largely due to an ailing economy that has helped
spur a 19 percent hike so far this year in shoplifting and stealing
from autos across the city, said Police Chief Tim Jackson.
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| New baet area map. For map of old beat areas click
here. (Maps courtesy of Santa Monica Police Department) |
In addition, the department’s new community policing model
– which dedicates a particular officer to a beat and makes
that officer more accessible and accountable – has encouraged
merchants to report more crimes, Jackson said. (“Police
Department Launches New Beat Plan,” October 30, 2008)
“Our new patrol plan has had an effect,” said Jackman,
who launched the new model at the start of this year. “Part
of it (the increase in crime) is a reporting issue. People are reporting
more crimes.”
The new model not only saw an area patrolled 24 hours a day by
the same officers, it also restructured policing beats that had
been in place for four decades, realigning the boundaries to correspond
more closely to those of the city’s eight neighborhoods.
In the Downtown, that meant pushing the boundary to Wilshire Boulevard
on the north and Lincoln Boulevard on the east, “so it dealt
with problems in the area,” Jackman said. It also excluded
the beach from the Downtown beat, integrating the area into a separate
beach patrol.
“We created a more effective policing strategy,” Jackman
said. “We’re creating a greater awareness with the community.
We’re creating a greater team effort.”
Police are not only forging stronger ties with merchants and residents,
they are working more closely with the Bayside District Corporation,
which runs the Downtown; with the City’s Public Works Department
and with Community and Cultural Services, which is in charge of
tackling the homeless problem, Jackman said.
In fact, the City’s success in cracking down on criminal
behavior by the homeless population – which Jackman believes
accounts for more than 40 percent of all arrests in Santa Monica
– is in large part responsible for the general drop in crime
Downtown.
“We have a much more comprehensive approach to handling the
homeless problem, and this is leading to a significant drop in crime,”
Jackman said. “We’re taking a much more aggressive stance.”
“We’re trying to get folks to make choices,”
he said. “We’re trying to get people to ask themselves,
‘Is this really what we want to do?’
“For many years we’ve created an enabling culture,”
Jackman said. “Now we provide folks either with services or
with facing some pretty strong consequences.”
The crackdown has contributed to a decrease in nearly every category
of serious crime Downtown, which has the city’s largest concentration
of people living on the streets, Jackman said.
According to the statistics, the number of reported rapes Downtown
dropped from five in 2006 to two last year, while there were no
homicides in either year.
Aggravated assaults Downtown dropped from 58 in 2006 to 44 last
year, and there have only been 17 such reports so far this year.
Burglary and attempted burglaries also dropped dramatically, from
94 in 2006 to only 50 last year, although 14 of the reported incidents
in 2006 took place at Santa Monica Place, where stores were closing
for a major remodel, resulting in no incidents reported last year.
Larcenies – which include shoplifting, pickpockets, purse
snatching, thefts from autos and thefts of bicycles – also
dropped, from 552 in 2006 to 497 last year, with the number of larcenies
at the indoor mall dropping from 83 to 59.
Among the larcenies, thefts from autos dropped slightly from 156
in 2006 to 144, most of them taking place in the six public parking
structures and the two structures at Santa Monica Place, which remain
open during the renovation.
The number of reported thefts from autos has dropped to 47 during
the first six months of 2008 thanks to the arrest of a suspect responsible
for a series of thefts.
“He went for about a year” without being caught, Jackman
said.
Bicycle theft also was way down last year, from 68 in 2006 to 50
last year. The number has dropped to only 13 during the first six
months of this year.
In fact, the only category that saw an increase Downtown in 2007
was robbery, with the number of reported incidents rising from 48
in 2006 to 54 last year. In the first half of 2008, there have been
20 reported robberies.
The shoplifting spree during the first six months of this year
has contributed to a total of 446 serious crimes reported, compared
to 692 for all of last year.
And with the economy showing no signs of improving and the holiday
shopping season -- which normally sees a rise in shoplifting and
thefts from cars -- still to come, 2008 could see a general increase
in crime Downtown.
Editor's note: This is the second in a series of ongoing articles
about crime in Santa Monica and its eight neighborhoods.
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