No homicides, 35% increase in robberies last year in Santa Cruz
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) Santa Cruz police released part 1 of its 2019 crime statistics for the city, and police said the numbers are in the expected average values based on reports over the last five years.
Police report for violent crimes:
- 2 homicides 2018, 0 homicides 2019, unable to quantify 0
- 34 rapes in 2018, 29 rapes in 2019, down 15%
- 66 robberies in 2018, 89 robberies in 2019, up 35%
- 289 aggravated assaults in 2018, 272 aggravated assaults in 2019, down 6%
Police report for property crime:
- 336 burglaries in 2018, 348 burglaries in 2019, up 4%
- 2,308 larcenies in 2018, 2,363 larcenies in 2019, up 2%
- 261 auto thefts in 2018, 221 auto thefts in 2019, down 15%
Police said all of the numbers reported are within the acceptable range of standard deviation based the Uniform Crime Reporting annual dashboard. The UCR data is collected nationwide to create uniform crime statistics. Police said when a negative shift happens, managers look into why it happened and adjust tactics.
In 2019, the increase in robberies stood out to police.
“Now we’ll take all those robberies, tear that apart, and find out: where, how, why, when, who, and then do the process of intervening to reduce that even further,” Chief Andy Mills said.
Petty theft remains prevalent in the city with lots of shop lifting. Downtown businesses say that's the most common crime they see.
“People on drugs. It's just the younger crowd that we’re worried about,” Manager at Rip Curls Richie Gonzalez said.
Overall, both violent and property crimes are significantly down from five years ago.
