Costa Mesa sees crime drop in ’02

Deepa Bharath

The city saw crimes in most categories plummet during the first

half of the year, a state attorney general’s report released Thursday

showed.

Costa Mesa saw several crimes, particularly robberies, assaults,

burglaries and auto thefts, increase in 2000 and 2001. But all of

those categories showed a significant decline in the first six months

of 2002 compared to the same period last year, the report said.

The total number of crimes was up 0.9%, however.

Violent crimes were down 21.5%. Robbery was down 7.8%, aggravated

assaults took a nosedive of 26%, burglaries were down 7.3% and auto

thefts dropped 11.5%. The only category reflecting an increase was

thefts -- up 8.1%.

Officials attributed the decrease to proactive and stringent

enforcement.

“We’ve been able to concentrate on our problem areas,” Costa Mesa

Police Chief Dave Snowden said. “We know where crime is occurring

thanks to crime analysis.”

Over the last year, the department has put together an undercover

operation to fight street crime, particularly robberies. Several

arrests were made as a result of that operation, officials said.

The department also belongs to a countywide task force that

combats auto thefts. Snowden said such steps have helped the

department slice those big numbers.

He said it is not clear why crimes increased in 2001.

“They go up, they go down,” Snowden said. “It can happen very

easily in a city like ours. At one point, when we have a group of

people running around committing vehicle burglaries, the numbers

shoot up.”

The chief also applauded the community for getting involved, which

Sgt. Don Holford said serves as the “eyes and ears of the

department.”

“A lot of credit goes to the officers working the cases and patrol

officers on the street,” he said. “It’s a total team effort.”

The state attorney general’s crime statistics released Thursday

only consider cities with populations greater than 100,000.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.