A local report on crime in San Diego County found an increase in homicides, violent crimes against seniors and car burglaries, in the year of 2016 compared to 2015.
The SANDAG Criminal Justice Division released findings from the annual Crime Report Monday that showed the number of homicides, aggravated assaults and motor vehicle thefts went up.
On the other hand, the number of rapes, robberies, burglaries and larcenies went down, according to the annual crime report.
There were 17 more homicides in the region in 2016, which had a total of 101 homicide cases. That's compared to 84 cases in 2015. It's the third consecutive increase in homicides and the highest number reported since 2012.
Although robberies went down in 2016, the number of armed robberies involving the use of guns increased 30 percent, according to SANDAG.
"San Diego County remains a very safe place to live," said Director of Criminal Justice Research Dr. Cynthia Burke, in a statement.
"However, there are a couple areas of concern: homicides are up, so are robberies committed with a firearm, as well as violent crimes against seniors."
Local
Violent crimes against seniors aged 60 and older went up 37 percent over the past five years, which the report indicates is not solely correlated to the increasing elderly population.
For the first time in eight years, there were more car thefts -- which had a total of 11,023 -- than burglaries, which had a total of 10,382.
Although general theft was down, the value of stolen property increased, due to the increase in vehicle thefts, according to SANDAG. There was roughly $468,080 worth of property stolen daily across the region of San Diego in 2016.
The violent crime rate per 1,000 residents was 3.33 and the property crime rate was 18.66 in 2016. These are the second lowest recorded rates since 1980, when SANDAG first began preparing annual regional crime reports.
