Report Reveals Mid-Year Crime Rates for San Diego

The SANDAG report looks at overall crime, violent crime and property crime rates across the San Diego region between January 2015 and June 2015

A newly released report on mid-year crime stats across San Diego County reveals a decrease in property crime, but an uptick in homicides and domestic violence incidents.

The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) unveiled a report Monday that analyzes the overall crime, violent crime and property crime rates across the San Diego region compiled using the most updated statistics from local law enforcement agencies.

SANDAG says crime rates across all three categories have remained relatively stable, with a slight increase in homicides.

According to the report, between January 2015 and June 2015, local law enforcement agencies reported four more homicides than during the same period in 2014. The report says a total of 43 homicides have occurred thus far this year in the region, compared to 39 during the first half of last year.

Domestic violence incidents have also seen an uptick in the first half of 2015, up 4 percent from mid-year 2014, SANDAG reports.

Meanwhile, stats indicate a slight decrease in property crimes for the first half of this year. The report says there was an average of 29 violent crimes reported each day in San Diego between January 2015 and June 2015, and a total of 5,335 violent crimes for the half-year period.

SANDAG says violent crimes include homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Burglaries declined by 13 percent while residential burglaries dropped by 11 percent, according to the report. Non-residential burglaries fell 15 percent compared to mid-year 2014.

The stats show aggravated assaults were down 6 percent from last year, perhaps related to a new change in how rapes are now under the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program. SANDAG’s research notes that because of this expanded definition of rape, this year’s rape and overall violent crime statistics cannot be compared to previous years’ numbers.

The report says 30,449 property crimes were reported across the county. Of that figure, 68 percent were larceny – up 4 percent – 16 percent were burglaries and 16 percent were motor vehicle thefts. Robberies were up 1 percent from last year while vehicle thefts decreased by 5 percent.

Meanwhile, arsons were down 10 percent across the region, with 195 reported – down from the 216 arsons recorded at this point in time last year.

Dr. Cynthia Burke, Director of SANDAG’s Criminal Justice Research Division, says the take away from this mid-year check-in is stability in local crime rates amid initiatives such as Assembly Bill 109.

“The relative stability in the region’s crime rates is notable, given legislative changes enacted in recent years that have resulted in more ex-offenders returning to local communities after incarceration,” Dr. Burke explained. “There have been concerns that crime rates would rise drastically based on these changes, but we’re not seeing that reflected in the numbers at this point.”

To read the full SANDAG report, click here.
 

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