City loses ‘safest’ ranking

Jenny Marder

For years, Huntington Beach has topped the list of safest cities in

Orange County and placed among the top 10 safest large cities in the

nation.

This year, as the usual multiple lists have been compiled from the

FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report, Surf City has been knocked out of

the top 10 and off many lists altogether, although it does appear on

at least one list.

Maryvictoria Pyne, chief of the Communications Unit at the FBI,

discourages ranking altogether.

“When you rank, you run the risk of comparing apples and oranges,”

Pyne said. “There are many, many things that influence crime and many

aspects of society that will affect the crime ... transient

population, elderly population, young people, a prison in your

community, weather. When you start ranking, you don’t look at those

factors.”

Huntington Beach Police are unfazed by the disparate lists. The

crime report is not an accurate yardstick for the city’s safety

record, Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Gary Meza said. Three murders in

2002 compared to none in 2001 increased the murder rate by 300%,

which Meza believes skewed the overall statistics.

“You can play with statistics, but consistently every year, we’re

always in the top 10 for cities of our size,” Meza said, adding that

it’s been a year now since the last murder occurred. “There’s pride

in this area, and I equate it to people looking out for each other.”

The FBI report tracks national, state and municipal crime rates

for violent crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, arson and

aggravated assault, as well as property crimes such as burglary,

theft and auto theft.

With 4,385 crimes in 2002 compared to 4,500 in 2001, the city’s

crime rate dropped 2.5%.

“I think we have a very efficient well-equipped police force,”

Councilman Dave Sullivan said.

Fast, effective helicopters, skilled intervention programs and a

criminal lab that helps Huntington Beach gather evidence all play a

part in keeping the city nearly crime free, he said.

Overall crime dropped nationwide by 0.02% last year. This was

after a 2.1% increase from the year before.

Figures show that murder, theft and aggravated assault rose

slightly in Surf City last year, with murder taking the highest leap.

There were 2,715 thefts in 2002, compared to 2,608 the year before,

and 216 assaults, which was an increase of 11 from 2001.

Most crimes in Huntington Beach, however, dropped in 2002. Rape

declined 18%, burglary 15% and motor vehicle theft 13%. The most

significant drop was in arson, which fell from 48 in 2001 to 33 in

2002, a 31% decrease.

Drop or increase, these numbers are not significant, Huntington

Beach Police Lt. Dan Johnson said, and are likely to vary from year

to year.

Another problem with the report, Johnson said, is that the nature

of crime has changed. Some of the most frequent felonies, such as

identity fraud and credit card theft, are absent from the FBI’s list.

“There are a lot more crimes now where people steal identity and

use it in some other way in some other place,” he said. “As we all

got [personal computers] and started doing a lot more with credit

cards and access cards, that’s when it increased. ... It’s a lot

easier to steal a credit card than break into a house.”

Johnson discouraged residents from leaving anything with a credit

card number or a Social Security number in the mailbox to avoid

identity theft, suggesting that residents instead take official

documents such as bills to the post office or hand them directly to a

mail carrier.

“You’re inviting a problem if you leave stuff out there,” he said.

” And if you’re not 100% sure that the business you’re dealing with

on the Internet is legit, don’t give them any identity.”

Regardless of the ranking, Johnson considers Huntington Beach a

very safe community and attributes the city’s top ranking to its

honest and upright community.

“The main reason is people who live here,” he said. “Huntington

Beach is a nice place to live and it’s full of nice people.”

Other large Orange County cities that ranked high on the crime

report were Irvine and Mission Viejo.

“We’re really proud,” Sullivan said. “This isn’t a flash in the

pan. It’s continual.”

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at jenny.marder@latimes.com.