Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Coronavirus has unclear impact on crime

The coronavirus pandemic has had an unclear impact on the number of crimes local law enforcement officers are seeing in North County and the Fallbrook area.

The California Highway Patrol, which oversees highways and all roads in unincorporated areas, has reported issuing far more tickets for speeding over 100 mph amid pandemic-related stay-at-home orders which have resulted in less traffic.

According to preliminary data from the agency’s traffic records, 4,000 tickets for speeding over 100 mph were issued between March 19 and April 30, which is more than double the rate seen last year during that same period. At the exact same time, the number of crashes statewide has declined about 75% from last year, and there has been an 88% reduction in the number of people killed in crashes.

But that’s about the only clear coronavirus-correlated crime statistic there is.

Lt. Arnold Aldana, who oversees the Fallbrook Sheriff’s Substation, said there haven’t been any obvious trends in incidences in other crimes, so it’s not apparent that coronavirus has had much of an impact on crime.

Aldana said there were very slight increases in reports of some crimes from March to April, but they were not significant and regardless, it would be impossible to tell whether they were coronavirus-related.

“For instance, DVs (domestic violence reports) from March to April has a slight increase, and then this month it went down,” he said.

Statistics provided by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department last showed the department responded to 20 reports of domestic violence incidents March 14 and 15 reports March 19, the day the statewide stay-at-home order went into effect. That was more than the five to 10 domestic violence calls the sheriff’s department had been averaging before the stay-at-home order, but not significantly more than an earlier peak of 15 domestic violence calls in February.

Data has, however, shown a marked drop in child abuse calls, according to San Diego County officials.

“It is too early to know the full impact that changes in the economy or other factors could have in increasing the risk for children in our community, but CWS does anticipate that there will be a recovery period from COVID-19 and we are exploring new measures to help strengthen families and ensure the safety of children moving forward through this period and beyond,” San Diego County representative Sarah Sweeney said in April.

Aldana went on to say that there were also slight increases in commercial burglaries and vandalism, but neither of those increases were significant.

“Again, that may be related or not, based on people staying at home and not checking on (properties),” Aldana said.

Will Fritz can be reached by email at [email protected].

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/29/2024 07:13