SACRAMENTO -- Attorney General Bill Lockyer today announced preliminary figures show a decrease of 3.8 percent in reported violent crime in the state's most populous cities and counties during the first six months of 2004. From January to June, compared to the same period in 2003, property crimes -- burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny-theft over $400 -- increased 0.5 percent.

Lockyer noted that while California's crime levels continue to decline, there are communities that are experiencing severe spikes in certain crime categories. For example, violent crime totals reported by Bakersfield and Fairfield police departments and the El Dorado, Monterey and San Diego counties sheriff's offices increased by 50 percent or more. Property crime totals reported by police departments in Corona and Modesto, and by Riverside, Sacramento and San Luis Obispo counties sheriff's offices increased by nearly 20 percent or more.

In comparison, violent crime totals decreased by 25 percent or more for the cities of Berkeley, Glendale, Inglewood and Torrance, as reported by the police departments in those cities. The police department and sheriff's office in Los Angeles both reported violent crime totals decreased by 13 percent. The Santa Rosa Police Department had the largest decrease (-22.3 percent) in property crime totals for a city.

During the first six months of 2004, when compared to the same period for 2003:

Homicides increased 3.9 percent;

Forcible Rapes increased 2.5 percent;

Robberies decreased 5.9 percent;

Aggravated Assaults decreased 3.3 percent;

Burglaries increased 0.8 percent;

Larceny-Thefts ($400 and over) increased 0.8 percent.

The report, "Crime 2004 in Selected California Jurisdictions, January through June," compares preliminary crime counts for the first six months of 2004 with final counts for the same period in 2003 for law enforcement jurisdictions serving populations of 100,000 or more. The 79 jurisdictions that met this criterion in 2003 and 2004 account for approximately 65 percent of the crimes reported in the state.

The report is available on the Attorney General's web site at http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/publications/preliminarys/jj04/jj04.pdf.

In addition to the "Crime 2004 in Selected California Jurisdictions, January through June," the annual California Criminal Justice Profile report for 2003 is now available online. This publication consists of the statewide report and individual reports for each county. The Criminal Justice Profiles report contains comprehensive criminal justice trend data from 1994 through 2003, and current year data for 2003, for all 58 counties.

The 28 data tables include reported crimes and crime rates by category and crime; felony and misdemeanor arrests by gender, offense and arrest rate; and law enforcement dispositions of adult and juvenile arrests by level of offense. This report is available on the Attorney General's web site at http://caag.state.ca.us/cjsc/publications/profiles/pub.htm.

Source: California Attorney General’s Office