Report Shows Continued Decrease In Crime

Despite a spike in burglaries last year, overall crime decreased by 4 percent in 2011 compared with 2010, Newark police reports.

Authorities also said more officers and attentive residents, the use of alerts and the recent re-establishment of the will continue to help aid officers in preventing crime and catching crooks.

Chief James Leal of the Newark Police Department said the crime rate has declined in the past two decades.

 “If you look at the numbers within the last 20 years, you would seek peaks and valleys,” Leal said. “Overall, the community is very safe.”

What The Numbers Say

Crime rate data collected for Newark Police Department’s annual FBI Uniform Crime Report show the most significant decline in crime was found in Newark’s homicide rate, which decreased by 80 percent.

The last spring marked Newark’s only homicide of 2011 – a much different picture than the previous year.

In 2010, there were four homicide cases that involved five victims:

• The deaths of Ignacio Ortiz and Martin Camarillo-Guevara on August 12, 2010 in which police concluded the two had fatally injured one another.
• The homicide case of Julius Von Hughes, who was found dead outside of the W Suites Silicon Valley Hotel in September 6, 2010. The case is unsolved.
• The stabbing death of Abdul Mubeen Babacarkhail on October 18, 2010 near Jacques Bar, which authorities said is an ongoing investigation
• And the stabbing death of Justice Afoa, 17, on December 15, 2010 on Cedar Boulevard near Birch Street, which is also still being investigated.

The report also showed declines in arson, robberies, theft and assaults. (For complete numbers, see the table below.)

Rape increased from seven cases in 2010 to eight incidents in 2011. Authorities said none of the cases involved a suspect that did not know the victim. Most of the cases were of statutory or acquaintance rape.

But the largest spike was found in burglaries, which rose from 327 to 385 cases.

Burglaries: ‘A Transient Crime’

The report shows burglaries increased by 18 percent in 2011 compared with 2010. Out of the 385 reported burglaries in 2011, 246 of them were residential.

Leal and Commander Bob Douglas noted that trends show recent residential burglaries are not typical to the burglary cases of previous years.

“In the past, you had one person working a certain neighborhood,” Leal explained. “Now it’s transient burglaries. People drive in from [out of town] and wait until someone leaves… kicks a door in and looks for quick and easy items to grab.”

Most reported stolen items are that of jewelry and handheld or easy-to-grab electronics, Leal said.

Douglas added, “It’s like a job. They get [the items] and move on.”

The declining economy seems to be a major factor in the increase of burglary cases, Leal said

“You have a lot more people out there without a job who are willing to risk incarceration” by burglarizing a home, Leal said.

Leal noted that in most burglary cases the suspects are not from Newark and that many of them are minors.

Because the suspects come from other cities and the fact there is no real method to the break-ins, it is more difficult to determine when burglaries occurred and who the perpetrators are, Leal said.

However, the burglary trend has been on the department’s radar the entire year, Douglas said.

More patrol units and surveillance by the department’s Special Enforcement Team were placed in residential neighborhoods, resulting in a 20 percent increase of burglary-related arrests, Douglas said.

The department’s three-member Special Enforcement Team handles investigations of gangs, drugs, neighborhood issues and schools.

A Look Into The Future: More Eyes and Ears

The number of law enforcement officers patrolling streets has declined throughout the country and Newark is no exception, Leal said.

In 2006, the department consisted of 60 sworn officers.

Today, there are 51 sworn officers with the Newark Police Department and that total already includes the additional detective added to the department through Measure U funds, a utility user’s tax measure passed in November 2010.

The lack of those nine officers means less coverage.

“Those officers could cover a lot more ground,” Leal said.

But the department is taking active steps in establishing other ways to get more eyes and ears on suspicious activities.

The has continued to grow with the establishment of 25 Neighborhood Watch groups, according to Special Assistant Tim Jones with the department’s Community Engagement Division. Jones oversees the Neighborhood Watch program.

The program, which dwindled in 2008, is now back in full force and Jones said in an email the department hosts monthly meetings with block captains to inform them of crime trends and prevention tips.

The captains are also encouraged to sign up for NIXLE, an alert system that any resident can register for.

Newark police in November. Through NIXLE, the department can issue notifications and alerts via text message, e-mail and on the website.

Leal and Douglas said the department is also in its early stages of establishing a volunteers policing program in which different levels of volunteering would be available to residents to help aid officers.

Through the program, some volunteers could patrol the streets in marked vehicles and call in suspicious activities to sworn officers.

Similar programs are established in Livermore and Pleasanton. Newark Patch will publish a more detailed report at a later date on the program, which police said would be established later this year.

Authorities encourage residents to continue to be aware of their surroundings in order to keep themselves safe.

“We’re trying to educate residents to be aware,” Leal said. “Pay attention to who’s around you.”

Any person who has information about a crime is asked to contact the Newark Police Department's non-emergency line at 510-578-4237 or can call the Silent Witness Hotline at 510-578-4000, extension 500. For emergencies, call 9-1-1.

To start a Neighborhood Watch group, contact Tim Jones, special assistant with the department's Community Engagement Division at 510-578-4209 or
tim.jones@newark.org

For immediate updates on police and fire incidents, follow Newark Patch on twitter.com/NewarkPatch and facebook.com/NewarkPatch and the Newark Police Department at nixle.com.

2011 YTD

2010YTD

2009 YTD

2008 YTD

2007 YTD

Total

Total

Total

Total

Total

Homicide

1

5

1

0

0

Rape

8

7

15

14

11

Robbery

54

67

73

69

82

Arson

3

9

5

8

9

Assault - Aggravated

98

112

113

96

129

Assault - non aggravated

261

258

315

274

266

Total Assaults

359

370

428

370

395

Resident Burglaries

246

198

159

149

130

Non resident Burglaries

139

129

169

181

181

Total Burglaries

385

327

328

330

311

Grand Larceny

301

288

296

400

391

Petty Larceny

598

686

887

940

787

Total Larceny

900

974

1183

1340

1178

Auto theft

101

127

184

200

232

Grand total*

1808

1877

2212

2240

2116

*Grand total does not include arson stats