After seeing decreases in many crime categories for the past four years within the station area, 2009 brought us new challenges and an overall crime rate increase. Fortunately, by working proactively and aggressively, we were able to focus our resources toward prevention and enforcement accordingly. With the economic challenges continuing from 2008, we anticipated increases in certain crime categories. When they began to occur, we were prepared to meet them head on.

By working with the community in an aggressive crime prevention partnership throughout the year, we managed to get a handle on some of the crime increases we had begun to see early in 2009. Crimes such as assaults and burglaries were down in some areas of Santa Clarita in the fourth quarter of the year.

A large part of the year-end crime rate reduction in burglaries can be attributed to the efforts of the Community Interaction Team (CIT) and the countywide Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) team who conducted more than 70 covert burglary suppression and saturation operations in neighborhoods throughout the Santa Clarita Valley. A dozen other operations involved bicycle, foot and T3 electric vehicle patrols. Other coordinated operations by patrol deputies in response to crimes in progress resulted in the immediate apprehension of a number of outlaws. School resource deputies conducted weekly curfew and truancy operations inhibiting juvenile crime. All these efforts resulted in nearly a 6 percent reduction in burglaries in the city of Santa Clarita toward the end of the year. All combined, robberies were down more than 2 percent and assaults over 14 percent in the last quarter of 2009. We continue to maintain our aggressive crime prevention strategies and community partnerships to try and maintain this downward trend but we anticipate 2010 will bring us even more challenges.

What is even more impressive is the impact we left on gang-related activity and crime in Santa Clarita. We maintained a focused and aggressive gang suppression campaign in Santa Clarita throughout the year. The station’s Detective Bureau, COBRA Unit and CIT teamed up with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Probation Department to carry out several successful operations aimed at dismantling the six active gangs who commit crime in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Utilizing these resources, we managed to significantly reduce violent gang-related crime in 2009 compared to 2008: Gang-related robberies were down 38 percent, assaults were down 32 percent, assaults with firearms were down an encouraging 50 percent and there were no gang-related homicides.

Deputies also carried out nearly 60 probation and parole compliance operations throughout 2009 as a way of keeping track of convicted felons living in the Santa Clarita Valley, ensuring they were in compliance with the terms and conditions of their probation or parole. During these operations, deputies worked under the guidelines of the Los Angeles County Department of Probation’s Developing Increased Safety through Arms Reduction Management (DISARM) Program — taking guns out of the hands of criminals. These operations will become even more important in 2010 as the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison system implements population reduction efforts that will result in the early release of more convicted felon parolees into our communities. We are already working aggressively on local intervention efforts and are gearing up to meet this new anticipated challenge.

Late in 2009, Sheriff Lee Baca began a partnership with "Crime Stoppers." Crime Stoppers provides an "800" telephone number and Web site to receive and distribute crime tip information to law enforcement agencies. Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible to receive a cash reward if the information leads to an arrest or criminal filing and conviction of a felony or misdemeanor. Just visit www.lacrimestoppers.com or call 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). We anticipate great success with this program in 2010.

And as always, I want to recognize the residents of our valley who have been our eyes and ears in the community by actively reporting crimes when they see them occurring. Let’s continue our work together in 2010 and keep Santa Clarita safe. Keep the crime tips coming! “If You See Something — Say Something.” Local non-emergency crime tips can be reported anonymously at SCVSheriff.com or by calling (661) 284-2-TIP (661-284-2847).

Best regards,

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