Costa Mesa crime drops

Deepa Bharath

Crimes took a nosedive in the city in almost every category during

the first nine months of 2002, the state Attorney General’s office

reported Tuesday.

Violent crimes plummeted 25.2%, according to the preliminary

report from California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer. That includes

robberies -- down 19% -- and aggravated assaults -- down a whopping

26.5%. The only category that increased was thefts -- up 3.6%.

Overall, the city saw a 2.9% drop in crime.

The numbers were in sharp contrast to those in 2001, when total

number of crimes climbed in all categories and officials worried

about the relatively high number of street crimes, robberies and auto

thefts.

But those days are behind them, said Costa Mesa Police Chief Dave

Snowden. He attributed his department’s success in fighting crime to

its efforts in targeting problem areas within the city.

“The key was being able to pinpoint locations where crimes are

occurring,” Snowden said. “Crimes have been happening in all areas of

the city. Different areas have different problems.”

Patrol Division Commander Tom Warnack said the department took

“multiple strategic approaches” to fight the crime increase.

“We performed crime analysis almost on a daily basis,” he said.

Warnack said he meets with the three Costa Mesa area commanders

every day to discuss how to use their resources.

“Each commander was given the authority to deploy officers as they

saw fit,” he said. “We call it directed patrol.”

One area they are still trying to improve in are vehicle

burglaries, which appear to be on the increase, Warnack said.

“We’ve set up several neighborhood watches,” he said. “The

community has been very cooperative and we owe our success to

everybody in the department who has worked very hard to make it

happen.”

The state report only focused on cities with populations of

100,000 or greater. Statewide, crime increased 5.3%. Violent crimes

rose 0.8% and property crimes upped 7.9%.

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

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