Seal Beach saw serious crime decreased by 6 percent in 2012.
That was an improvement over 2011 crime statistics, when the Seal Beach Police Department reported a 5 percent increase in serious crime.
The serious crime figures included both violent crimes and property crimes.
Unfortunately, larceny increased 7 percent in 2012.
This year, the 2012 and 2011 crime figures were provided to the Sun by Seal Beach Police Crime Analyst Kevin Edwards. Last year, 2011 and 2010 crime figures were provided by Michele “Mickey” Hall, records supervisor for SBPD.
The 2011 statistics were identical in both reports. The figures provided included both percentages and actual numbers of specific crimes.
When you look at crime statistics, remember to keep the following in mind:
• The figures only reflect the number of crimes reported to or discovered by the police.
• The figures only reflect crime reports that the police consider valid.
• The figures provided do not distinguish between solved and unsolved crimes.
Also remember that a “percentage” can be misleading without actual numbers.For example, there were 20 car part thefts reported in Seal Beach in 2012.
That is a 33 percent increase from the 20 known car part thefts in 2011.
However, there was only one known car part theft in 2010. Mathematically speaking, car part theft increased by 1,400 percent from 2012 to 2011. That “percentage” makes the problem seem worse than the reality reflected in the actual numbers.
A “zero percent” change in figures means that the same number of crimes were documented last year as were documented the year before.
Below are statistics for what law enforcement agencies call Part 1 crimes—homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft of automobiles and larceny.
Drug violations, drunk driving and vandalism are counted among the Part 2 crimes.
Larceny figures will be treated separately from the other Part 1 crimes because there are so many sub-categories of larceny.
Most crimes decrease
There were 593 known Part 1 crimes in Seal Beach last year, a 6 percent decrease from the 630 Part 1 crimes documented in 2011.
Homicides, robberies, burglaries and auto thefts all decreased last year. Larceny was the only category of Part 1 crime that saw an increase. Rape reports did not change.
Homicide: There was a 100 percent drop in the number of homicides in Seal Beach in 2012. That’s because there were zero homicides in Seal Beach last year. There were eight homicides in Seal Beach in 2011—seven more than in 2010. Statistically, that represented a 700 percent increase from 2010.
Rape: One rape was reported to the police in 2012 and one rape reported to the police in 2011. That was a zero percent change.
Robbery: Five robberies were documented last year; a 38 percent decrease from the eight documented robberies of 2011. There were six robberies documented in 2010.
Assault: There were 74 assaults last year. That was a 21 percent decrease from the 94 assaults documented in 2011. The 2011 statistics represented a 32 percent increase in assaults from 2010.
Burglary: Police documented 106 residential and commercial burglaries last year—a 15 percent decrease from the 125 burglaries documented in 2011. There were 125 known burglaries in 2010, continuing the see-saw pattern of crime statistics during the last few years.
Auto theft: There was a 32 percent decrease in auto thefts last year—23 cars were stolen in 2012, as opposed to the 34 taken in 2011. The year before that, 29 cars were stolen.
Larceny on rise
Most sub-categories of larceny increased last year. Shoplifting, theft from vehicles, theft of vehicle parts, theft from buildings and other forms of larceny increased. There were fewer bicycle thefts and no pockets picked, no purses snatched and no coins stolen from coin machines, that the police know of, in 2012.
Pickpocket: This crime dropped 100 percent last year from the two reported incidents of 2011.
Purse snatching: No purse snatchings were documented in either 2012 or 2011.
Shoplifting: The crime news was bad for the business community—the 85 known shoplifting crimes in 2012 represented a 55 percent increase from 2011.
Theft from cars: Police report that there were 124 thefts of property from cars last year, a 3 percent increase from the 120 thefts documented in 2011.
Bicycle theft: The 58 bike thefts of last year represented a 21 percent decrease from the 73 known bike thefts of 2011.
Thefts from buildings increased 61 percent from 2011 and “all other” kinds of larceny increased 27 percent.
