Serious crime up 12% — a rare increase — in Newport Beach
For the first time in more than a decade, crime reports in Newport Beach are heading up.
After years of double-digit percentage declines from year to year, the number of serious offenses such as burglary, assault and robbery increased in the first six months of 2015 compared with the same period last year, according to data provided by the Newport Beach Police Department.
Overall, serious crime rose 12%.
The increase is in so-called Part 1 crimes, which are categories defined by the FBI so cities across the country can track and compare their rates.
Violent crimes — homicide, rape, robbery and assault likely to cause serious injury — jumped 44%, though, as is typical in Newport Beach, the number was relatively low — 49, an increase of 15 from a year earlier. The number includes eight additional serious assaults and five more robberies.
As also is typical in Newport, the vast majority of Part 1 incidents in the latest report were property crimes: burglary, theft, auto theft and arson. Property crimes increased 10.9% overall, driven mostly by 189 burglaries (up by 21) and 802 thefts (an increase of 82).
“It is important to note, this increase is in comparison to last year’s lowest crime rate in the history of the city,” Newport Beach Police Chief Jay Johnson said in a statement.
Even with the increase, crime was almost 2% below Newport’s five-year average, he said.
“While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons for these latest increases, it has become clear that recent legislation is having an impact on these numbers,” Johnson said.
By that, Johnson meant California’s 2011 prison realignment plan; 2012’s Proposition 36, which relaxed the state’s three-strikes law; and Proposition 47, which last year reclassified a swath of low-level felonies as misdemeanors that carry lesser penalties.
“All three of these laws were passed in order to relieve prison overcrowding and reduce state funding, but the effects of early-released prisoners is starting to become evident throughout the county and state,” he said.
UC Irvine professor of criminology Charis Kubrin said some other areas also are seeing an uptick in crime after long declines, but she cautioned against focusing the blame on any one demographic or cause.
“One of the biggest mistakes we can do is drawing conclusions of who is committing the crimes by these aggregate crime statistics,” she said.
But according to Johnson, the new laws have created a “catch and release” system for criminals.
He pointed to his department’s 1,589 misdemeanor arrests during the first six months of 2015, an increase of 56% from the same period last year.
Newport police have adopted tactics such as tracking repeat offenders, monitoring parolees and deploying more officers to hot spots like the Balboa Peninsula, Johnson said.
“With the addition of police personnel and our relationship with this community through Neighborhood Watch, town hall meetings and other community events, we feel that our recent change in Part 1 crimes has been minimal when considering the monumental negative impacts of the recent changes made to our criminal justice system in California,” the chief said.