Car thefts in Costa Mesa down

Motor vehicle thefts in Costa Mesa are the lowest they’ve been in at least five years, according to year-end statistics released by the Costa Mesa police department.

According to police department data, there were 246 cars stolen in Costa Mesa last year. That’s a 19% drop from 2008, and less than half of how many were stolen in 2005, when 555 cars were stolen.

The change is only one of several decreases in crime Costa Mesa saw in 2009 compared to years past. According to the statistics, available on the police department’s website at costamesapd.org, there was also a 30% drop in reported rapes, from 39 to 27, and a 14% drop in aggravated assaults.

In the longer view, though, with statistics dating back five years, most “Part 1” crimes – incidents serious enough for people to report them and occurring frequently enough to track them – numbers remained generally unchanged.

There were fewer assaults in 2009 than the year before, with 943 reported, but they still remained high compared to 2005 when 854 were reported. Of those, however, fewer of those assaults were serious felonies such as assault with a deadly weapon, data shows.

For the second straight year, Costa Mesa saw one murder. Kenneth Leake, 76, is accused of shooting his wife, Doris, up to five times in their home on Orange Avenue. She succumbed to her injuries more than a week later. Leake remains in custody and is awaiting trial. In 2008, police said Scott Santana, an accused gang member, stabbed another man outside a local market.

The numbers are a far cry from 2006, which was a particularly violent year with at least four shootings in the city.

Police reported 114 robberies last year, six less than in 2008. For the third time in five years, police recorded in 2009 more than 2,500 larcenies, which includes vehicle and petty thefts, police said. The data counters a preliminary report issued last month by the FBI, showing an uptick in violent crime in the city through the first six months of the year compared to 2008.

The FBI will release its report total violent crime in Costa Mesa in 2009 later this year.