by Mark McDermott
Crime data recently released by the Manhattan Beach Police Department shows an increase in property crimes, both over the last year and over a five-year average.
MBPD Chief Rachel Johnson said a key takeaway from the data is that violent crimes have not increased.
“Violent crime has largely remained flat, year over year, from the five-year average,” Johnson said. “Violent crime has largely remained the same, and that’s important to know because these are crimes against people — these are robberies and aggravated assaults. And as we moved through a lot of the data, in the violent crime incidents, over half the people knew each other already. So these are family disputes, coworker disputes, neighbor disputes, and things like that. And so with our violent crime, it’s not that we have people coming in large numbers to perpetuate violent crime here in our city.”
But Johnson said the increase in property crimes is significant. Again, a deeper dive into the data is revealing, the police chief said, because it shows a significant portion of the property crimes are preventable.
“I think there’s a cascading series of events that have led us down the path to having more property crime,” Johnson said. “Some of this is just the vigilance we need to have in our community. Stolen vehicles were extremely high, one of the large drivers of property crime. In fully half of those stolen vehicles, the keys were in the vehicle. So in half of these stolen vehicles, there wasn’t really any effort on the part of the auto thief, because they could see the keys in the vehicle and they were able to abscond with it.”
A similar trend was apparent in thefts from vehicles.
“Those thefts were up, but a lot of times, not all the time, there is visible property in the vehicle,” Johnson said. “Typically, a thief will try door handles and if there’s a door open, they’ll see what’s in there. If the door is locked, and if they see something worth breaking a window, they’ll break a window. But if the car is locked and there’s nothing visible, typically they are going to move along.”
Johnson said that another driver in the property crime increase has been shoplifting. This is part of another trend that is outside the City’s control — a series of legislation that began in 2011 that downgraded such crimes and the penalties criminals were subject to when caught.
“A lot of shoplifting crimes 10 years ago…these were considered commercial burglaries, and that was a felony, so you’d usually be looking at state prison time,” Johnson said. “A cascading series of legislation beginning in 2011 removed a lot of the penalties for these types of crimes, and so that same crime today is considered shoplifting, which is a misdemeanor if the amount is under $950. So you all of a sudden go from a felony crime and state prison time to a misdemeanor crime and you are looking at a maximum time of one year in county jail but you can probably count on much less than that.”
Similarly, possession of many forms of narcotics has been downgraded from felony to misdemeanor. Johnson said there is a connection between the drug charges and thefts.
“Not every thief is on drugs, but some are, and now you have a population of people who face reduced consequences,” she said.
Making things worse, Johnson said, is that LA County is not prosecuting most misdemeanors.
“With the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office declining to prosecute most misdemeanors, our criminal element — there’s no stick, all carrot because there are no consequences for a lot of these crimes. That has also increased our crimes because people committing these crimes don’t think anything is going to happen to them.”
When Johnson took over as police chief last August, she identified her first task as doing a full assessment of the department and its needs. Analyzing the crime data was part of that assessment. The chief’s overall assessment resulted in a requesting authorization to hire 10 more MBPD employees, including seven sworn officer positions. Johnson said that due to the long process involved in hiring any officer, MBPD had been “basically breaking even on hiring,” meaning hiring was barely keeping pace with vacancies occurring through retirements. The sworn force, which was at 65, has been increased to 72. This will allow for a four-officer bicycle patrol, which is intended both to provide a more visible police presence and better engage the community, and thus ramp up crime prevention measures. The additional personnel will also enable formation of a Crime Impact Group, consisting of a sergeant, and three officers who will be tasked with surveillance, following leads, identifying suspects, and composing warrants, all of which Johnson believes will result in more arrests.
Johnson’s intention is to make it known that those who commit crimes in Manhattan Beach will be pursued and arrested.
“I think we will see an increase in arrests,” Johnson said. “This increases our bandwidth, and our ability to get people in custody for crimes that are committed…The criminal element. I learned throughout the course of my career, to talk to each other. It is my hope that we will make a dent that will make criminals think, ‘I don’t want to go to Manhattan Beach. The odds are not in my favor…’ in terms of being able to outrun the technology, and the intellect, and the investment our detectives have. So it’s my hope that we will, through all our efforts, drag down crime, and just make this a less attractive place to commit crime.”
A big part of the effort to reduce crime will be through community involvement. MBPD will be releasing weekly updates in which it identifies crime trends, in hopes that the community will increase its vigilance. Johnson urges residents to join Neighborhood Watch, and to never hesitate to call MBPD.
“Know your neighbors,” Johnson said. “And if you see something that is out of place, you have to call the police. I’ve heard throughout my career, ‘We didn’t want to bother you. I didn’t trust my own instincts.’ Those are all very human things to say and I understand them. But let us let the police department decide whether or not something merits additional scrutiny. If you see something, say something.” ER
