Lt. D'Auria: Lock Your Doors and Windows

Lt. Paul D’Auria told the City Council on Tuesday night that San Clemente was a quiet beach city, to a point, but that law enforcement was as busy as in much larger cities such as Mission Viejo.

“We’re a very busy city in terms of law enforcement,” said D'Auria, chief of San Clemente Police Services.

D’Auria spoke in response to concerns of citizens in Rancho San Clemente that they were seeing a spike in burglaries.

D’Auria said there were 134 residential and commercial burglaries last year. He qualified that by saying 70 percent of those burglaries were from homes with open garages, open or unlocked doors or open windows.

Thirty-four of those were burglaries from open garages, where the perpetrator did not enter the home, and 60 were via an open door or window.

“We’re not up here to blame the victims, [but] it is frustrating to me to see these numbers,” D’Auria said.

Overall, however, serious crimes, such as burglary, rape, murder and felony assaults and others are down by 10 percent over 2009, D’Auria said.

More detailed crime statistics are coming out in spring.