O.C. Crime-Solving Lags Behind State Average

Crime in Orange County has plummeted, but most of its law enforcement agencies are less likely to solve cases than their counterparts statewide, an analysis shows.

California law enforcement agencies cleared an average of one in five crimes from 1993 to 1997, according to a Times analysis of data compiled by the state Department of Justice.

Two-thirds of Orange County’s cities fell below that clearance average, the analysis shows. Clearing a crime is defined by authorities as arresting and handing a suspect over to the courts for prosecution.

Costa Mesa posted the highest clearance rate in the county, clearing 36% of all crimes over the last five years. Yorba Linda had the lowest, clearing 8% of crimes during that period, followed by La Palma at 9% and Laguna Beach at 10%.

About half of Orange County’s agencies have seen their crime-clearing rate drop since 1993, including some cities considered among the nation’s safest.

Cypress, for example, experienced one of the steepest drops: From 1988 to 1992, the Police Department cleared 23% of its crimes. But over the last five years, it cleared only 11% of them, according to figures the Cypress Police Department reported to the state.

Other departments, such as Santa Ana and Huntington Beach, slipped only a few percentage points--to 16% and 18% respectively.

Police in a handful of cities--including Anaheim, Costa Mesa, La Habra and Newport Beach--improved their crime-clearing performance over the last five years. Some of these police departments credited their success in part to improved relations with residents, which have resulted in better cooperation during crime investigations.

Still, criminologists who reviewed Orange County’s numbers said they are troubled by the lower-than-average crime-clearing rates.

“To be effective, you have to have some responsible level of clearance rate,” said George P. Wright, chairman of the criminal justice department at Santa Ana College. “If it is very low, then you have to look at what it is you are doing.”

Others believe strong clearance rates are crucial because swift and certain punishment is probably the greatest deterrent to crime.

David H. Bayley, the dean of criminal justice studies at State University of New York in Albany, said low clearance rates indicate that criminals don’t face the certainty of being caught.

“It’s the certainty [of punishment] that we’re not delivering,” Bayley said.

Clearance Enhances Resident Cooperation

Others believe poor crime-clearing rates can undermine the public’s willingness to report crimes.

Residents “might not know the [clearance] percentage rate, but if it was their garage that was burglarized and we caught the bad guy and got their property back, they’d be ready to pick up the phone next time something happened,” said Costa Mesa Police Chief David L. Snowden.

“But if you never heard from us again after you filed that report, you’d say, ‘Hey, somebody stole my car, but I’m not calling them because they don’t do anything anyway,’ ” Snowden added. “That is how clearance rates are a measure of your agency.”

Police officials from other agencies agree, saying they need to focus more attention on clearing cases from their books.

“It doesn’t matter if crime is declining every year if we aren’t clearing the cases,” said Cypress Police Chief John D. Hensley. “I have to ask myself, are we gathering good enough information in the field for the detectives to follow up?”

The analysis by The Times revealed that a police department’s ability to clear crimes has little correlation to either the overall crime rate in its city or on how much it spends on law enforcement.

Over the past decade, the law enforcement budgets of 18 communities outpaced both inflation and the growth of the populations they protect. In nine of those communities, the crime-clearing rates improved. In the other nine, the rates declined.

Conversely, in the cities where police budgets have been slipping behind inflation and population curves, half were able to improve their crime-clearing rates, while half did worse.

The percentage of crimes cleared is considered an important performance measure for police departments, and the only one tracked and tabulated by state and federal authorities. But experts agree that crime clearance rates must be placed in perspective.

Communities with relatively little crime can still record low clearance rates, especially if they have a higher proportion of property crimes. Thefts and burglaries, which are seldom witnessed, are generally harder to solve than violent crimes such as rape and aggravated assault, where there is at least one witness to the crime, officials said.

Cypress’ Hensley, who was recently hired by the city, said he was both surprised and concerned by what the latest figures indicate about the efficiency of his department. His department is undergoing a top-to-bottom performance audit ordered by the City Council.

Hensley said that as part of his first-year plan to improve his department’s performance, crime clearance rates will be “a key measurement that we will take a look at.”

Cypress’ clearance rate is 46% below the state average--slightly better than Laguna Beach’s. According to state figures, police in the beach resort town cleared just 10% of the city’s crimes over the last five years.

Laguna Beach Police Chief Jim Spreine said the clearance rates aren’t an accurate measurement of his officers’ performance.

“The statistics don’t tell how many hours my officers were out in the street beating the bushes trying to find out whether we got a suspect or not,” Spreine said. “I’m not trying to make excuses for the department, but I am telling you that I think it is really kind of unfair to look at these stats and try to make a determination as to the effectiveness of a police department.”

Spreine complained that the picture of crime and clearances in his community is distorted, because Laguna Beach was derelict at reporting the clearances of six rapes and four robberies in 1997. He said he didn’t believe there were omissions in the other nine years of data reviewed by The Times.

Like Laguna Beach and Cypress, other cities with low crime rates recorded low crime-clearing rates as well.

Irvine, traditionally considered one of the country’s safest large cities, cleared 14% of its crimes--ranking 31% below the state average. Chief Charles Brobeck attributed its low standing to a disproportionately large number of property crimes that he said are difficult to solve.

“We’ve had some nagging property crimes, thefts of motor vehicles and burglaries that we have not totally cleared,” Brobeck said. “We’re growing rapidly here, and I am in the process of hiring more officers” to accommodate the population growth.

Tiny and affluent Villa Park, which is patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department, had an average clearance rate of 11% over the past five years--about half the state average--something the department attributes in part to the low rate of witnessed violent crimes in the city. “People tend to, at times, leave their guards down for more petty crimes. Car thefts are up and you have a lot of unlocked vehicles and houses,” said Sheriff’s Department Capt. Pete Gannon.

Villa Park has experienced a rise in property thefts in recent years because of the construction of several new roads that make the city less isolated from the rest of the county, Gannon said.

Police officials, however, aren’t sure exactly why cities are having more trouble solving thefts and burglaries when the number of property crimes has dropped or remained steady over the last decade.

Gangs, Mall Security Affect Clearance Rates

Santa Ana’s clearance rate also stands below the state average, a fact officials attribute to difficulties solving gang-related crimes.

“In the gang cases, no one wants to cooperate,” said Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters. “They don’t want to tell you what happened, which means they are going to go out and seek revenge. A lot of the incidents we don’t find out about until they show up at the hospital. You go there and [the victims] tell you every story imaginable.”

Santa Ana officials also argue that crime clearance statistics do not tell the whole story. The department has 50 outstanding murder warrants in homicides that have not been cleared because suspects have managed to flee the area, many to Mexico.

“In order to have a clearance, you have to have an arrest,” Santa Ana Capt. Dan McCoy said. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t know who did the crime.”

Even police departments with high crime-clearing rates agreed that the measurement can sometimes be misleading.

Costa Mesa and Brea, for example, both posted clearance rates well ahead of the state average. But both cities are home to major malls, and the police chiefs give some credit to shopping center security personnel who nab shoplifters and thieves.

“It makes your clearance rate look great,” Brea Police Chief William C. Lentini said. “When the mall calls, it’s already cleared, because they have the suspect in custody.”

Clearance rates can also be skewed because of the various ways departments classify crimes. Cities rely on front-line officers to determine how to classify crimes. An officer, for example, might investigate a possible burglary but end up listing it as a “suspicious circumstance”--meaning the case does not go on the books as an unsolved crime.

“Regardless of what the numbers say, every department at times interprets the rules for clearances differently from what the FBI may mandate in the guidelines,” said Hensley, the Cypress chief.

But generally, Costa Mesa’s Snowden said, clearance rates are important for what they tell him about police-community relations.

Police cannot solve crimes without citizen help, Snowden said, so an improved clearance rate is another measure of citizen cooperation with--and confidence in--his department.

Although it remains somewhat elusive exactly what police departments can do to improve their ability to solve crimes, one factor appears to be strong ties between police and the community.

Take Anaheim. The city’s clearance rate has soared to 37% above the state average, and police officials in that city attribute the gains to community-oriented policing in which officers are assigned to specific troubled neighborhoods.

Anaheim Police Lt. Charles Chavez said improved relations cannot be underestimated.

“The trust starts to build, and they know that we’re there for the good of the community,” Chavez said. “In most of these communities, the majority of the people are good people. You have to break down these barriers that are there. We have people now who will tell us things we never thought they would.”

One measure that doesn’t appear to work is simply throwing money at the problem.

Anaheim is one of those cities where taxpayers, in the words of criminologist Bayley, were “certainly getting more bang for their bucks.” Per-capita spending for police protection effectively declined in that city by 9% over the past 10 years, while its average clearance rate went up 7 percentage points during the second half of that decade.

Santa Ana, in contrast, has not had to operate under the same budgetary handicap, but has slipped slightly in clearing its crimes.

“The story in the Orange County figures is the differences in the clearance rates,” Bayley said. “I think that’s fascinating.”

*

Inside

* A city-by-city breakdown of crime-clearance rates and how Orange County agencies compare to the rest of California. A12

- Anaheim officers have one of the best clearance rates in the county. How they do it. A12

- On the Times Orange County Web site, a look at every community: https://www.timesoc.com/ crimestats

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

O.C.’s Mixed Record Solving Crimes

During 1993-97, when crime was declining, two Orange County cites in three cleared crimes at a lower rate than the statewide average, 20.4%. More than half the cities did, however, improve their rates from the previous five-year period, 1988-92. Police consider a case cleared or solved when at least one person is arrested and charged with the crime. How Orange County’s cities compared with the statewide level:

Statewide Clearance Rate: 20.4%

30% or Better:

Costa Mesa

Laguna Hills*

La Habra

Lake Forest*

20-29%:

Anaheim

Brea

Dana Point*

Mission Viejo*

Newport Beach

Orange

San Clemente*

Westminster

10-19%:

Buena Park

Cypress

Fountain Valley

Fullerton

Garden Grove

Huntington Beach

Irvine

Laguna Beach

Laguna Niguel*

Los Alamitos

Placentia

San Juan Capistrano*

Santa Ana

Seal Beach

Stanton*

Tustin

Unincorporated areas*

Villa Park*

Less than 10%:

La Palma

Yorba Linda*

* Patrolled by Orange County Sheriff’s Department; Yorba Linda is patrolled by the Brea Police Department

CLEARANCE RATE

*--*

1988-92 1993-97 Clearance Clearance rate* rate Change Anaheim 21% 28% 7 Brea 21 24 3 Buena Park 14 14 Costa Mesa 32 36 4 Cypress 23 11 -12 Dana Point** 18 22 4 Fountain Valley 15 18 3 Fullerton 20 18 -2 Garden Grove 23 19 -4 Huntington Beach 20 18 -2 Irvine 22 14 -8 La Habra 19 25 6 La Palma 8 9 1 Laguna Beach 8 10 2 Laguna Hills** 25 30 5 Laguna Niguel** 14 18 4 Lake Forest 17 20 3 Los Alamitos 15 12 -3 Mission Viejo** 20 21 1 Newport Beach 17 24 7 Orange 33 25 -8 Placentia 20 17 -3 San Clemente** 10 21 11 San Juan Capistrano** 25 19 -6 Santa Ana 19 16 -3 Seal Beach 18 19 1 Stanton** 14 17 3 Tustin 16 15 -1 Unincorporated areas** 23 19 -4 Villa Park** 15 11 -4 Westminster 22 22 Even Yorba Linda** 7 8 1

*--*

* Some cities do not have full 1988-92 periods from which to draw comparisons: Dana Point comparison is 1989-92; Laguna Hills, 1992; Laguna Niguel, 1990-92; Lake Forest, 1992, and Mission Viejo, 1989-92

** Patrolled by Sheriff’s Department; Yorba Linda patrolled by Brea Police Department

WHERE CRIME OCCURS

Crime rates in Orange County during 1997, based on the FBI Crime Index, ranged from a high of 524 per 10,000 residents in Brea to just 182 in the county’s unincorporated areas. Rates per 10,000:

*--*

Brea 523.66 Westminster 483.03 Costa Mesa 452.75 Stanton* 449.92 Newport Beach 420.39 Anaheim 415.23 Santa Ana 404.61 Fullerton 392.09 Garden Grove 391.67 La Habra 386.38 Tustin 385.83 Buena Park 382.64 Fountain Valley 382.50 Laguna Beach 381.60 Los Alamitos 373.90 Huntington Beach 342.57 Laguna Hills* 341.29 Dana Point* 315.78 Cypress 307.90 La Palma 306.45 Orange 289.41 Irvine 288.26 Placentia 279.47 San Juan Capistrano* 276.02 San Clemente* 266.53 Seal Beach 231.26 Laguna Niguel* 213.05 Lake Forest* 208.59 Mission Viejo* 206.48 Villa Park* 199.23 Yorba Linda* 193.05 Unincorporated areas* 181.51

*--*

* Patrolled by Sheriff’s Department; Yorba Linda patrolled by Brea Police Department

The FBI’s Index Crimes are willful homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, auto theft, larceny/theft and arson

THIN BLUE LINE

Few Orange County cities have at least 1.8 officers per 1,000 residents in 1997, the average ratio in the western U.S.:

*--*

Officers per 1,000 Sworn residents officers Anaheim 1.31 384 Brea 1.08 102 Buena Park 1.23 90 Costa Mesa 1.43 147 Cypress 1.13 53 Fountain Valley 1.15 63 Fullerton 1.21 149 Garden Grove 1.10 167 Huntington Beach 1.16 218 Irvine 1.10 142 La Habra 1.29 70 La Palma 1.46 23 Laguna Beach 1.91 46 Los Alamitos 2.14 25 Newport Beach 1.91 134 Orange 1.17 143 Placentia 1.14 52 Santa Ana 1.20 368 Seal Beach 1.21 32 Tustin 1.36 89 Westminster 1.15 96 Countywide average 1.33

*--*

Note: Dana Point, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Stanton, Villa Park and unincorporated areas patrolled by Sheriff’s Department; officer per 1,000 residents figure for Brea includes Yorba Linda, which is patrolled by Brea Police

PROTECTION MONEY

Per-resident spending for police protection in Orange County was $164.10 in 1997. About a third of cities spent more for than that, with Newport Beach the highest at $329.11. Mission Viejo spent the least, $70.17. How the cities compared:

*--*

Newport Beach $329.11 Laguna Beach 288.17 Los Alamitos 236.60 Santa Ana 223.32 Costa Mesa 217.98 Unincorporated areas* 209.62 La Palma 204.07 Seal Beach 195.30 Anaheim 193.56 Irvine 180.60 Huntington Beach 179.21 Westminster 178.54 Tustin 174.08 Countywide average 164.10 La Habra 163.69 Cypress 160.50 Brea 158.89 Fullerton 157.44 Fountain Valley 156.44 Orange 156.24 Buena Park 153.41 Placentia 151.40 Stanton* 143.92 Garden Grove 138.23 San Clemente* 129.30 Laguna Hills* 123.39 San Juan Capistrano* 117.96 Dana Point* 117.44 Yorba Linda 101.17 Villa Park* 87.25 Lake Forest* 80.30 Laguna Niguel* 73.98 Mission Viejo* 70.17

*--*

* Patrolled by Sheriff’s Department; Yorba Linda patrolled by Brea Police Department

Source: FBI