NEWS

Crime is UP in Orange County – OC Register

Crime rose 23 percent in Orange County last year – the greatest single-year jump in at least a decade – with the steepest increases coming in stolen vehicles, aggravated assaults, theft and burglaries, according to law enforcement records compiled by The Orange County Register.

Unlike other upticks in recent years, 2019’s crime bump was felt more broadly across the county, with 32 of 34 cities reporting more serious crimes – and in several cases spikes of 30 to 50 percent.

“It seems like we’re under attack by people targeting our neighborhood, casing our neighborhood,” said Alan Derow, 55, a neighborhood watch leader who has lived in west Garden Grove for 23 years. “It wasn’t like that five years ago. We’ve become very vigilant.”

Many Orange County police officials blame the surge on a state law they say makes it difficult to keep drug addicts and other low-level offenders locked up, leaving them on the streets to repeat the same crimes and steal to feed their addictions.

Criminologists say that link is speculative, at best, and has not been supported by research of the complex variables that may affect crime rates. They also warn against faulting a major criminal justice initiative before its effects have been fully evaluated. However, many street cops and police chiefs think the spike in property crime is a direct result of California Proposition 47, which passed three years ago to reduce some felony theft and drug offenses to misdemeanors, has had the unintended effect of making it hard to keep many low-level offenders behind bars.

But even as they urge restraint in drawing conclusions about the causes, academics concede something is driving up crime throughout California, which saw a 13 percent increase in property crime and a 9 percent rise in violent crime in the first half of last year, according to FBI data.

By contrast, property crime nationally fell by 4.2 percent and violent crime rose 1.7 percent in the same time frame.