Crime View For February 2009

Following is a synopsis of briefing held March 18, 2009 covering the prior month, February, crime activity.
The number of calls for service were significantly higher during the night than day. The increase was 223. The total calls for service was 1,157 for February.

Traffic Collisions: Compared with January 09, February saw 8 more collisions for a total of 38.
Traffic Fatalities: January and February showed no fatalities.
Personal Injury Collisions: January there were 11 injury collisions but in February there were only 7. The map pattern shows the most collisions taking place at major intersections.
Property Damage Collisions: January there were 19 property damage collisions. In February we experienced a 63% increase with 31 collisions.
Non-injury Collisions: For February we count about 31 for non-injury collisions. Peak traffic times raise this occurrence. Map patterns show major intersections and all over the city.
Motorist Passenger Injuries: February shows an increase by one from January for a total of 11.
Pedestrian Injuries: February shows an increase by one from January for a total of 2.
Bicyclist Injuries: For February, there were no bicyclist injuries.
Hit and Run Collisions: Because the Placentia Police Department has increased impound car totals, we see a decrease in hit and run collisions. The decrease from January is two. The average vehicle impounds are about 70 a month. The total hit and run collisions for February was 7.
Hazardous Cites: We see a very slight decrease from 401 in January to 393 in February.
Parking Cites Issued: The principal reason for parking citations is when individuals park their vehicles on roadways that are posted for no parking due to street sweeping. The city saw one of their street sweepers go out of service resulting in a huge decrease in parking citations. January both sweepers were working and show a total of 1,035 citations. In February, with only one sweeper, the citations slipped to 723 a 30% decrease.
Driving Under the Influence Collisions: None.
Driving Under the Influence Arrests: From 12 in January we see only 4 in February. The apparent reason for this 67% decrease is night patrols for burglary suppression and area suppression of property crime. Because we see only 4 arrests, the map points for this crime show no pattern.
Have Been Drinking. None.

Note: The primary factors for vehicular collisions was in order of importance, fail to yield, speeding and turning.

Crimes Against Persons

Homicide: February shows one homicide.
Rape: None
Robbery: None for February.
Aggravated assault: Definitely down from 7 in January to 4 in February.
Non-aggravated assault: A significant increase for this crime occurred in February. For February there were 24 incidents while in January there 16. February 2008 there were 5 so 24 is a significant increase.

Note: Assaults took place Sunday, Thursday and Friday between 8pm and midnight. The map for this type of crime reveals no pattern - seemingly random. 13 of the February assaults were domestic violence related and 1 was gang related.

Property Crimes

Residential Burglary: With the economy doing so poorly we did see a double of residential burglaries in January from 3 in 2008 to 7 in 2009. But for February 2009, the number dropped to 6.
Commercial Burglary: For January the number was 5 and remained the same for February. The most reports took place on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Saturday from 4pm to 8pm. The crime map shows a cluster in the Atwood area.
Vehicle Burglary: One of the biggest headaches for the Placentia Police Department has been the number of vehicular burglaries. January 2009 had 15 while February 2009 had 22. You can help our police department and yourself by locking your vehicle doors and keeping valuables out of sight. The crime maps show the south part of the city, a line drawn east and west where Alta Vista Street is, having the most reports. Date and time for most reports was Sunday between 8pm and midnight.
Grand Theft: A slight increase from January with 13 to 16 in February. 16 represents a 100% increase from last year. Grand theft for the month of February occurred most frequently on Monday and Wednesday between 4 and 8pm.
Petty Theft: From January 2009 with 20 reports, there was a drop in February. February shows a total of 13 reports. This crime occurred consistently throughout the week between 4pm and midnight. Vehicles left unlocked account for at least one half of these incidents.
Vehicle Theft: Shows a total of 7 in Febuary 2009. This is a drop of about 50% from last year during the same month. Sunday and Friday between noon and 4pm account for most of these reports. The crime map shows two clusters, south west corner of the city and east of Jefferson and north of Orangethorpe.