Crime Dropped in SM in 2010, FBI Reports

Most types of crime dropped in Santa Monica from 2009 to 2010, according to statistics released this week by the FBI. There were 392 reported violent crimes in 2010 compared with 393 in 2009, and 3,120 reported property crimes in 2010 versus 3,354 the previous year.

The FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report includes information submitted by local law enforcement agencies. The information is compiled and released to the public in the fall of the year that follows the reported year.

Violent crimes include murder/ nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. In 2010, there was one reported murder: On Aug. 1, Rosalind Olson, a 61-year-old woman, was stabbed to death across the street from . In 2009, three incidents of murder/ nonnegligent manslaughter were reported.

Reported forcible-rape incidents dropped from 14 in 2009 to 12 in 2010. Reported aggravated assaults, which the FBI defines as "an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury," went down from 214 in 2009 to 212 the following year.

Reported robberies, however, went up from 162 in 2009 to 167 in 2010. The FBI defines a robbery as "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear."

Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson. Between 2009 and 2010, the number of reported arson incidents stayed the same, at 26—but there was a significant drop in the other three categories.

The number of reported motor-vehicle thefts dropped from 264 in 2009 to 166 in 2010. Reported larceny-theft incidents, which the FBI defines as "the unlawful taking, carrying, leading or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another," fell from 2,578 to 2,541. Reported buglaries, which the FBI defines as "the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft," tumbled from 512 to 413.

Last month, the told Santa Monica Patch . As of Aug. 14, crime was down by 9 percent overall, compared with the same time frame last year.

According to the SMPD's statistics, reported robberies were down 32 percent, vehicle burglaries down 23 percent, grand-theft autos down 2 percent, residential burglaries down 3 percent and miscellaneous thefts down 2 percent.

The SMPD had also said that reported homicides were down 100 percent, but that was before a clerk at was in late August.

"Santa Monica has continually been dropping our crime rates," SMPD Chief Tim Jackman told Santa Monica Patch earlier this year. "We have not seen these low of numbers since the 1950s. ... Our city is a safe place to work, live and play."

Crime has declined across Los Angeles County in 2011 as well, according to the LA County Sheriff's Department. As of the end of July, violent crimes were down 11.74 percent and serious property crimes by 4.45 percent.