Yesterday we looked at headlines in The Patch for the month of May only, in which they detailed Murder, Attempted Murder, Sexual Assault, Stabbings, Shootings, Robbery, Drunk Driving, Heroin Possession, Kidnapping, Gangs, and Car Chases. All of these crimes involved either a criminal or a victim who lived in Lake Forest and a crime that was committed in Lake Forest. In most cases, they involved all three elements.
Here are some even more distressing figures –
COMMITTING CRIME
In terms of all crimes, for 2011 and 2012, we had the 3rd highest crime rate when all 10 cities served by OCSD were compared. Only San Juan Capistrano and Dana Point had a worse record, and considering they are “beach” cities and therefore have many more people and crime, being better than them is like being healthier than a leper (no offense DP and SJC).
All of our neighboring cities (Irvine, Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods) have lower crime rates.
SOLVING CRIME
For 2011 and 2012 our rate of solving serious crimes was a mere 20%, placing us # 8 out of 10. Not very impressive.
PAYING FOR POLICE SERVICES
Next year, Police services will consume 38% of our budget, up from 30% only a few years ago. On a per capita basis, we spend more on public safety than San Clemente, Mission Viejo, Laguna Woods, Laguna Niguel, RSM, and Aliso Viejo, yet all of these neighboring cities have lower crime rates and higher rates of solving crime. We pay more and get less!
REGULATING TO INCREASE CRIME
Only last week, City staffers recommended adding another store that sells alcohol to an area already 300% over the limit prescribed by the State for allowing alcohol sales. Among neighboring cities, we have the highest rate of arrests for DUIs and the highest rate of arrests for alcohol law violations, and the City wants to open more stores where people can buy alcohol!?
If getting drunk more easily isn’t enough, the City recently approved opening a gambling den. Now, everybody knows that gambling dens don’t attract crime, so that should help keep our streets crime free.
And by the way, one of the single greatest predictors of crime is city size. If you want to have more crime, have more people. Even when you control for population, larger cities have higher crime rates. So what has the city been busy doing? Growing the size of our population by an incredible 15%. There is no greater way to create more crime than embark on such an aggressive growth program, yet that is what we are doing.
TALKING ABOUT CRIME
If you go to a City Council meeting, you’ll rarely hear the word “crime” mentioned. No one seems to care. On those few occasions when crime is mentioned, our public officials are proud to announce that we have less crime than downtown Detroit, Baltimore, and almost every other giant metropolis in the U.S., but they never care to discuss the fact that we have far more crime than any comparable city around us.
Every so often, Mayor Voigts says he likes the idea of a “Neighborhood Watch” (NW). But as good an idea as NW is, one of the most comprehensive studies of its effectiveness concluded – “The oldest and best-known community policing program, Neighborhood Watch, is ineffective at preventing crime” Moreover, there is some evidence that NW actually increases crimes. In any event, when it is effective NW works best on property crimes (burglary, motor vehicle theft) and really doesn’t assist in other areas (murder, rape, assault).
Despite Voigt’s nominal support for NW, nothing has been done to increase the program. Nor has anything been done to expand the STARS program, in which volunteers assist the police. In the recent strategic planning meetings and in the new budget, not a single word was said about the problem of crime in Lake Forest, nor are there any new initiatives being talked about or funded which will decrease our relatively high crime rate nor increase our relatively low rate of solving crimes.
It’s a sad state of affairs when the biggest crime in Lake Forest may be the fact that the Council ignores the problem of crime in our city, or when they discuss it at all, they lie to us and tell us how “safe” we are.
