LAKE COUNTY – Despite hard economic times, recent reports from state, federal and local officials show that 2009 witnessed a drop in crime rates, particularly for violent offenses.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation released its preliminary figures for 2009 on Monday, the same day as the Lake County Sheriff's Office released its 2009 report.
The California Department of Justice released its preliminary 2009 report on May 14. By law, the state DOJ must present its annual report on the crime for the previous calendar year to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on or before July 1.
The FBI's preliminary report shows a 5.5-percent decrease nationwide in violent crime – specifically, homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault – and a 4.9-percent decline in property crimes, such as burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny – or theft over $400 – compared to 2008.
Those figures are based on information from 13,237 law enforcement agencies that submitted between six and 12 months of data in both 2008 and 2009, the FBI reported.
The initial data suggests that violent crimes were down for the third straight year across the United States, with property crime down for the seventh straight year, according to the FBI.
In California, violent crimes decreased 8.5 percent from 2008 – from 129,046 to 118,134 – and property crimes decreased 11.1 percent – from 413,661 to 367,745 – in 2009, the DOJ reported based on statistics from 87 agencies serving populations of 100,000 or more and accounting for 64 percent of the crimes reported in the state annually.
For the Lake County Sheriff's Office report – which doesn't include statistics for the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport, or information from the California Highway Patrol or other agencies, like the Department of Fish and Game – the data showed downward or flat trends, and an overall decrease in all crime types since 2005.
At the same time there was a 10-percent increase over 2009 in total case numbers for the unincorporated county population, which numbers about 44,600, based on a recent state report.
Total incidents – approximately 51,451 – showed a 6-percent decrease over 2008, with property crimes and sex crimes showing no percentage increase. Property crimes for the year totaled 927, just down from 928 in 2008, while sex crimes numbered 50 in 2009 and 51 in 2008.
Violent crime decreased by 11.3 percent, from 530 in 2008 to 470 in 2009, while alcohol- and drug-related crimes dropped 15 percent, from 749 to 635, the report showed.
The rollback in violent crimes reported in 2009 essentially brings the county back to its 2007 level. Sheriff's Capt. James Bauman reported that during a review of the 2008 annual report, the stated percentage in the rise in violent crimes from 2007 to 2008 – from 469 to 530 – was discovered to have been incorrectly reported as 22 percent, when it fact it was 13 percent.
The unincorporated county area covered by the Kelseyville zip code – which has a large population spread over a significant area – had the largest number of property crimes reported, with 197, followed by Clearlake Oaks with 107 and the unincorporated county area in the Lakeport zip code, with 97.
In 2009 the county's top three areas for violent crime reports were Kelseyville, 93; Lucerne, 65; and unincorporated Lakeport, 64. Two homicides were reported in the county area, one in Kelseyville and one in Clearlake Oaks.
Kelseyville had eight reports of sex crimes in 2009, followed by unincorporated Lakeport and Lower Lake, which each had seven, according to the report.
Unincorporated Lakeport led with the most number of reported drug- and alcohol-related crimes, with 126, followed by Lucerne, 87, and Nice, 86.
Bauman said the sheriff's office is fully staffed currently, with 24 deputies and eight sergeants assigned to patrol.
“We are better staffed right now than we have been in the past,” he said.
Local police departments show mixed trends
While the county's unincorporated areas reported less overall crime incidents in 2009, Lake County's two cities showed more mixed statistics, with increases in some crime areas and notable drops in others.
In Lakeport, with a population of about 5,100, total crimes reported went from 332 in 2008 to 360 in 2009, Burke said. That's an 8.4-percent increase.
From 2008 to 2009, rapes stayed flat, at four reported each year, while robberies went from three to five, according to Lakeport's data.
Assaults showed an increase from 72 in 2008 to 97 in 2009, a 34.7-percent increase. Burke said larceny cases rose from 169 in 2008 to 192 in 2009, a 13.6-percent increase.
Crimes showing decreases from 2008 to 2009 were burglaries, which Burke said dropped from 67 to 60 – a 10.4-percent decrease – and vehicle thefts, down to 12 from 17 the previous year, a 29-percent decrease.
While there have been expectations from some experts that a large crime wave could result from the economic downturn, Burke said that, for the most part, they're not seeing that. “In fact, we've seen the opposite,” he said, pointing to the nationwide trends.
When fuel prices climbed a few years ago, there was as spate of fuel thefts, he noted. “So you do see certain crimes linked to certain economic trends.”
At Clearlake Police Department, which serves a city of about 14,300 residents, Chief Allan McClain provided Lake County News with crime statistics for 2008 and 2009.
Total violent crimes – homicide, forcible rape, robbery, assault and burglary – plus larceny and motor vehicle crimes totaled 825 in 2008 and 810 in 2009, a 1.8-percent decrease.
In both years, murders numbered two, forcible rapes went from 16 to 15, and robberies rose from 17 to 21, the statistics showed.
Total assaults dropped 16 percent, from 255 to 214, while the data showed that burglaries declined from 181 to 166, accounting for an 8.2-percent decrease.
Larcenies rose from 271 to 307, or 13 percent, and motor vehicle thefts increased slightly, from 83 to 85, Clearlake Police statistics showed.
Lakeport Police currently has 13 sworn officer positions. Burke said they're not going to be filling a few of their vacancies, so his agency will be down a police officer.
Over at Clearlake Police, the employment situation is much more dire. On May 13, the Clearlake City Council voted to eliminate 5.5 full-time equivalent positions. Since 2007, the department has lost 20 percent of its staff, according to McClain.
In all, McClain has lost 13 personnel, among them nine officers.
Besides that, calls for service this year already are on the rise. “We're way up over the last two years,” said McClain, estimating a 20-percent increase in calls.
Between the higher calls for service and the staff cuts, “We're getting killed,” McClain said.
Nationwide statistics show decreases in urban, rural areas
The nation's four major regions all showed decreases in violent crime from 2008 to 2009, the FBI reported. Decreases were 6.6 percent in the South, 5.6 percent in the West, 4.6 percent in the Midwest, and 3.5 percent in the Northeast.
The FBI reported that, from 2008 to 2009, robbery dropped 8.1 percent, murder decreased 7.2 percent, aggravated assault declined 4.2 percent and forcible rape decreased 3.1 percent.
Cities with populations of 500,000 to 999,999 residents had the largest decrease in violent crime – 7.5 percent – while violent crime declined 4 percent across all of the nation’s metropolitan counties.
Smaller cities, however – with 25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants – were the only city population group to report an increase in the number of murders, 5.3 percent. The number of murders in the nation’s nonmetropolitan counties also rose by 1.8 percent, according to the FBI reported.
In nonmetropolitan counties like Lake, nationwide a 3.0-percent violent crime decrease was reported, including a 0.7-percent drop in robberies. However, a 0.3-percent increase in rapes was reported in those same nonmetropolitan areas over the previous year, the reverse of the trend seen in cities.
Nonmetropolitan areas experienced a 9.5-percent decrease in larceny-thefts, the FBI said, but constituted the only population group where a rise in burglaries took place, for a 0.5-percent increase, the report showed.
Concerning property crimes, from 2008 data to 2009 the West reported the biggest decline in property crime, with a decrease of 6.8 percent, the FBI said. Property crime declined 5.6 percent in the Midwest, 5.3 percent in the Northeast, and 3.2 percent in the South.
Arson decreased 10.4-percent in 2009, with decreases across all population groups and across all regions – 11.6 percent in the West, 10.6 percent in the South, 9.2 percent in the Midwest and 8.6 percent in the Northeast, according to the FBI.
State numbers also show decreases
The California DOJ's report showed that homicides have decreased 10.5 percent from 2008 to 2009, dropping from 1,643 to 1,470.
Aggravated assault decreased 7.3 percent from 70,103 to 64,971; forcible rapes were down 2.9 percent from 5,654 to 5,490; robberies dropped 10.5 percent, from 51,646 to 46,203; burglaries were down 5 percent, from 147,101 to 139,703; motor vehicle thefts were down 17.4 percent, from 126,739 to 104,742; and larceny showed an 11.8-percent decrease, from 139,821 to 123,300.
See the reports:
Lake County Sheriff's Office report: http://lakesheriff.com/stats/CrimeStats.asp .
California Department of Justice: http://ag.ca.gov/crime.php (see “Latest Reports”).
FBI report: www.fbi.gov/ucr/prelimsem2009/index.html .
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
