REGION: San Diego stats show robbery still on the rise in county
FBI: Crime down in nation
By COLLEEN MENSCHING - Staff Writer | ∞
Crime nationwide decreased in the first half of 2007 compared to 2006, according to a report released Monday by the FBI.
But North County's two largest cities ---- Oceanside and Escondido ---- bucked that trend, posting increases in robberies and car thefts.
Nationwide, the rate of robbery decreased 1.2 percent in the first six months of 2007, according to the FBI's preliminary Uniform Crime Report, which compared data from 12,032 law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, Oceanside, with 166,424 people, saw a 5 percent increase in robberies in the first half of the year, the FBI reported.
Escondido, with a population of 133,429, saw a 19 percent increase in robberies.
"It's kind of across the board," Escondido Lt. Bob Benton said of the increase. "Because of that, the county put together a task force to see what we can do to reduce robberies countywide."
Noting an increase in robberies last August, Escondido increased anti-gang enforcement, prostitution stings and curfew enforcement for minors, Benton said.
"A lot of the time our street robberies are committed by (minors) or the victim are (minors)," he said. "We saw an increase of iPod robberies and kids getting their skateboards stolen."
In the FBI's preliminary report, information about specific cities was limited to those with populations greater than 100,000.
Oceanside and Escondido are the only North County cities with populations greater than 100,000.
The FBI numbers confirm a trend first reported in April by the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional planning agency. The agency's report showed robbery is one of the few violent crimes consistently on the rise throughout the county over the past few years.
There were 4,387 robberies reported in the county last year, compared to 4,313 in 2006 and a low of 3,342 in 2002, according to the association.
And in the smaller communities of Ramona, Fallbrook and Valley Center, violent crime rates ---- which include murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault ---- spiked in 2007, the association reported.
As with robbery trends, the FBI report showed a nationwide decrease in auto theft for 2007, while Escondido and Oceanside showed increases.
In fact, San Diego County rose eight spots to third in the nation in car thefts, according to a survey released in April by the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
Overall, crime is still down in San Diego County, according to multiple government agencies.
Oceanside, which has a reputation for gang violence, was safer in 2007 than it had been in 30 years, Oceanside Chief Frank McCoy said in April after seeing 2007 crime statistic compiled by the county.
McCoy cited numerous factors for the year-to-year decline, foremost among them the increase in police officers. In 2003, there were 177 full-time officers, McCoy said. In 2007, the number of police officers climbed to 212, McCoy said.
He said extra officers have been assigned to high-impact areas, including community policing, the gang unit and investigations.
To view the FBI's crime statistics report, visit the Web site http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm
To view San Diego County Association of Governments crime statistics, visit http://www.sandag.org/uploads/publicationid/publicationid_1367_8040.pdf
Contact staff writer Colleen Mensching at (760) 739-6675 or cmensching@nctimes.com.
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George wrote on Jun 9, 2008 9:55 PM:Speaking of highway robbery, when is SANDAG going to use the gas tax and Transnet sales tax money to widen our freeways to relieve congestion as they promised in 2004 instead of siphoning it off into non-relief projects?
Luke wrote on Jun 9, 2008 11:04 PM:The demographics of the robbers would be helpful. We know what the most wanted list looks like on the county blotter.
Of Course wrote on Jun 10, 2008 7:22 AM:To many Legal and Illegal criminals on the streets!
no Oside bashing wrote on Jun 10, 2008 11:05 AM:Wow, would have thought all the Carlsbad, Del Mar and La Jolla residents would be chiming in on the terrible streets of Oside? The streets they haven't seen in years. There is more crime as there are more people. Pretty simple. The economy is bad, so robbery will continue to clime as lower class residents resort to crime to get by. Ah, the american dream.
Im robbed every time.. wrote on Jun 10, 2008 11:27 AM:when I put gas in my car.
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