INDICATOR

 STATUS

 TREND

This indicator looks at crime rate per capita for given types of crime (property, violent and hate) for the city overall.  The target is naturally to have a downward trend in crime rate.  In future, we hope to report this information by neighborhood, reporting district, in addition to the citywide information currently available.

During 2006, violent crime increased in 2006, while property crime dropped. Violent crime was .62% per capita in 2005 but edged up to .65% in 2006.  Stated another way, during 2006, there was roughly one violent crime per year for every 154 Santa Monica residents.  In 2006, Santa Monica’s Property crime has dropped from 4.4% to 3.6% per capita from 2003-2006.  That represents approximately one property crime annually for ever 28 residents in 2006.

Reported hate crime in Santa Monica was 5 in 2000, rose to 29 in 2001 and was back down to 3 in 2006.

Violent and Property Crime
Santa Monica’s crime rate has remained flat in recent years consistent with trends in the State of California as a whole. Like the rest of the state, Santa Monica’s violent crime increased a bit last year, and its property decreased crime slightly. 

By comparison to other like-sized California cities located in metropolitan areas, Santa Monica has slightly lower violent crime rates and slightly higher property crime rate rates.  For example, Santa Monica’s violent and property crime rates are about double those of Burbank, CA.  Santa Monica’s property crime was about half that of Berkeley, CA, while its violent crime rate was slightly higher.

Hate Crime
Hate crimes are not separate, distinct crimes, but rather traditional offenses motivated by the offender’s bias.   Hate crime data are collected by capturing additional information about violent and property crime already reported. 

Santa Monica reported a six-fold spike in anti-Islamic hate crime following 9/11 than the corresponding increase in hate crime experienced on the state and national level during that time period.   It’s possible that Santa Monica applied more stringent standards than other cities and jurisdictions for the classification of a given crime as a hate crime during that period.  If that’s true, the spike may reflecting a reporting anomaly rather than an actual substantial change in frequency of hate crimes.  In any event, hate crime returned to its 2000 levels in 2002, and has actually declined since then to 3 per year in 2006, as reported above.

Gang-Related Crime
The city began developing its comprehensive gang prevention strategy in 2003, when the City Council selected as one of its three Community Priorities to “Enhance the quality of life, safety, and community involvement of residents of the Pico neighborhood.” In doing so, the city committed significant resources to develop services that involve residents, businesses, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and religious and cultural institutions. As a part of that effort, the Santa Monica Police Department began classifying crime as gang-related.  The Police Department completed its first full year of classification of crime as gang-related in 2006,  reporting153 Part 1 (serious) and Part II (less serious) crimes.

The federal Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program divides offenses into two groups, Part I and Part II crimes. Each month, participating law enforcement agencies submit information on the number of Part I offenses reported; those offenses cleared by arrest or exceptional means; and the age, sex, and race of persons arrested for each of the offenses. Contributors provide only arrest data for Part II offenses. “Part II” crimes include embezzlement, fraud and identify theft are not reported in this indicator, since, as stated above, they only get reported when an arrest is made.  The classification of crimes as violent or property crimes aligns with UCR definitions and is summarized in the chart below.  Please review the FBI website on the topic for more detailed crime definitions.