Credit the Rise of Concern for County’s Drop in Crime : Aggressive Community Policing Is Producing Results

The reported decrease in violent crime in Orange County last year was a bright spot amid the usual grim news of gangs and guns, robberies and murders.

Most criminologists said they were unsure why the FBI’s statistics, which were released this month, showed improvement. That is a frank acknowledgment that the causes of crime are complex, and it is unwise to read too much into any one year’s figures.

Still, aggressive police work certainly deserves some credit. In Santa Ana, for instance, violent crime dropped 18% last year and property crimes went down 13%. The decreases were the most dramatic among the county’s large cities.

Santa Ana has been enthusiastic in practicing community policing, which tries to enlist the residents as partners with police. Last year the city put up $1.7 million in order to get another $1.7 million from the federal Community Oriented Policing program.

That money will add 15 police officers for three years. There was a quick result, with a 60% drop in armed robbery in the final six months of 1995 compared with the same period in 1994. Assaults and burglaries also dropped dramatically.

Anaheim, Huntington Beach and other Orange County cities also have community policing programs, trying to get officers to become a familiar presence on city streets rather than waiting at the station to respond to reports of crimes already committed.

Cities have also benefited from coordinated efforts to improve neighborhoods and throw obstacles in the paths of criminals. City departments that crack down on landlords whose apartments violate city codes deserve applause. Making life better for residents can help them feel they have a stake in the neighborhood. That can make them more likely to offer assistance to police, who cannot be expected to do their jobs without support.

Orange Police Chief John R. Robinson rightly noted the many factors that can contribute to increases or decreases in crime: demographics, economics, even the number of liquor stores operating in a city.

But he said his department’s partnerships with the community and gang suppression efforts likely deserve at least some credit. Overall crime in Orange showed a 14% decrease last year.

Garden Grove Police Chief Stan Knee said city residents appear to feel safer than they did several years ago. He too credited community policing with helping shape that perception. But many police said the public still perceives crime to be rampant despite the drops in reported crimes.

Part of that is due to publicity given dramatic crimes, such as the killing of a 14-year-old in Tustin in a dispute over a stereo system last year, or the brutal stabbing death of 24-year-old UCLA graduate Thien Me Ly in January, also in Tustin, allegedly by a white supremacist.

For the past several years, concern about crime has been at or near the top of the list of worries of residents polled for UC Irvine’s Orange County Annual Survey. Many residents pronounced themselves fearful of leaving home to shop, see a movie or go to the beach.

The FBI report on the drop in actual reported crime in Orange County was a welcome contrast to last month’s announcement that violent crime among juveniles has become worse. Robertson and others noted that the predicted increase in the number of young people in Orange County in coming years is reason for concern.

Police, parents and schools must continue to search for ways to reach young people and turn them away from gangs and crime. The county Probation Department has developed a program to identify those most likely to become repeat offenders, but it requires further testing.

A number of churches have also tried to help parishioners organize local groups to fight gangs, drugs and crime. Private businesses have contributed to some police programs that were jeopardized by a cutoff in funds because of the county’s bankruptcy. Those efforts are a laudable recognition that a coordinated, communitywide response to crime is needed. Last year’s statistics are encouraging evidence that the fight against crime is producing results.