As the unit commander of your Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, I must constantly evaluate how we can best serve the needs of the community and keep all residents in the Santa Clarita Valley safe. We are already three months into 2008 and the year-end crime statistics for 2007 have been compiled. As a result, I once again find myself assessing and attempting to identify what the rest of the year could bring, and how we can best accomplish our many goals and meet the community’s expectations. I am under the firm belief that as we move forward, we must look back and learn from our previous experiences.

What we saw was encouraging, but at the same time we found there are areas we can focus on and work to improve. In looking at the numbers, we are able to identify crime trends, better determine where we need to focus our attention and resources, and assess how we as your law enforcement and community protectors can improve our service and effectiveness. It also helps us gain perspective on what we can expect in the days, weeks, and months ahead, and where and how we can best apply our crime reduction and prevention efforts.

With the growth of the community comes new law enforcement challenges and we are certainly up to the task. Although we saw a reduction in all violent crime in the City of Santa Clarita and nearly every other statistical area across the board in comparison to year-end 2006 crime statistics, we did see just over a 15% increase in property related crimes throughout the Santa Clarita Valley, specifically in the larceny category, which includes vehicle burglaries, theft from vehicles, property thefts, shoplifting, etc. Residential burglaries were down nearly 8% in the entire Santa Clarita Valley and are not included in the larceny category. Much of the larceny increase can be attributed to growth and development of new shopping centers and retail stores with aggressive loss prevention staff and security systems, and some, unfortunately, as a result of our own complacency in affording thieves easy opportunities by leaving our valuables in plain sight, unprotected and unattended. Sometimes it’s easy to forget to be secure with our possessions or become complacent because we live in such a great and safe community, but we need to remind ourselves daily to take personal safety precautions for protecting ourselves, our property, and our neighborhoods.

Although the community and your deputies were very proactive and arrested 504 suspects on vehicle burglary and theft/larceny related crimes in the Santa Clarita Valley in 2007, a more than 48% increase from 2006, it seems there is no shortage of others who are willing to take their place and are looking for easy opportunities. My staff is working very hard on an aggressive public safety campaign regarding property crime and thefts and how to avoid being a victim by following a few simple guidelines. Literature and safety tips regarding the subject have also been distributed and are available right here on SCVSheriff.com. Working together we can reduce these numbers in 2008.

Although violent crimes were down in the City of Santa Clarita, we did see a small overall increase of just over 1% in total violent crimes in the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff Station’s area of responsibility. This increase can be mainly attributed to miscellaneous unfortunate independent incidents, not a serial crime trend. Many of our youth programs, gang enforcement teams, crime prevention and school resource deputies are aggressively reaching out to our youth in an effort to reduce sporadic incidents of crime and violence. Gang enforcement and graffiti abatement efforts have also been aggressively enhanced throughout the Santa Clarita Valley.

From an enforcement perspective, your deputies are certainly up to the job of protecting all of the residents in the Santa Clarita Valley. Last year your deputies were very proactive in sending a “Not in Santa Clarita” message to individuals who attempted to commit crimes in the Santa Clarita Valley. Your deputies made 6,636 total arrests in 2007, in comparison to 5,627 in 2006, an increase of nearly 18%. In addition, your deputies responded to more than 57,500 calls for service, including nearly 4,300 emergency (9-1-1) calls, and generated more than 73,000 self-initiated observation incidents and contacts in calendar year 2007, while serving all residents in the 52 square miles of the City of Santa Clarita and the 596 square miles of unincorporated Los Angeles County. The deputies also wrote reports documenting thousands of incidents throughout the Santa Clarita Valley, generating more than 22,400 incident report numbers throughout the year.

The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff Station’s Traffic Department is responsible for all traffic enforcement and traffic accident investigations in the City of Santa Clarita. In 2007, deputies assigned to the Traffic Department responded to more than 2,200 collisions in the City of Santa Clarita; including four involving fatalities and 80 involving suspected drunk or impaired drivers. Your deputies also made 417 Driving under the Influence arrests. Deputies issued nearly 16,000 traffic citations for moving violations, seatbelt, and equipment related offenses. A majority of the hazardous citations issued were related to excessive speed. Excessive speed was also a primary causal factor in many of the traffic collisions. Driving Safely = Arriving Safely!

The City of Santa Clarita is the fourth largest by population in Los Angeles County, and your Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station serves a total area population estimated at more than 250,000. As we continue our growth right along with the community, it is my intention to work tirelessly to improve every aspect of your law enforcement services in the Santa Clarita Valley. Together, the more than 200 men and woman who make up the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, including Deputy Sheriffs, professional staff members, Law Enforcement Technicians, Custody Assistants, Community Service Officers, Property Custodians, Reserve Deputy Sheriff’s, Volunteers, Explorers, and countless other job classifications, will continue to work day and night right alongside you to keep our community as one of the best in the nation to live, work and play!

If we all continue to work together and make it difficult for criminals to commit crimes, and take our personal safety seriously, we will continue our commitment toward maintaining the safest possible neighborhoods, shopping centers, and recreational areas that make the Santa Clarita Valley so great! We have made tremendous strides in the past 15 months. We intend to keep it going!

Our community is so safe because of your involvement! I can’t even begin to tell you the number of great arrests that were made throughout the Santa Clarita Valley as a direct result of our residents getting involved, noticing something out of the ordinary and calling our station. Information provided to our crime tip hotline and on-line crime tip reporting mechanism was also very beneficial in helping us identify and track down individuals who chose to commit crimes in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Keep up the great work! We are but one agency, we cannot be everywhere, and we cannot do it without you. We need your eyes, ears, and involvement and we realize that. Stay safe and remember: Preventing crime in Santa Clarita is everyone’s business - “If You See Something – Say something”. Non-emergency crime can be reported anonymously by calling (877) TIP LASD (877-847-5273) - (661) 284-2-TIP (661-284-2847) or report on-line at your City of Santa Clarita / Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department website: www.scvsheriff.com. We are proud to serve you and look forward to the many great things to come throughout 2008 and beyond!

Best regards,

Captain Anthony La Berge
Chief of Police for the City of Santa Clarita