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SDPD: Overall crime in San Diego dropped in 2020, but homicides hit a peak

San Diego Union-Tribune - 3/9/2021

San Diego registered a drop in overall crime last year, but killings rose 10 percent from 2019, police officials announced Monday.

There were 55 homicides recorded in 2020, marking the highest year-end total in the city in each of the past five years, according to Police Department data from previous years.

Data shared Monday show overall crime dropped about 8 percent across the city, which consistently ranks among the safest large cities in the U.S. The data show drops in five of seven categories, with the exception of aggravated assaults, which increased about 9 percent, and homicides.

Among violent crimes, rape dropped 13.5 percent while robbery decreased about 10 percent.

Police officials said the city's crime trends were consistent with those of other major cities.

"From facing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to keeping the peace during the many protests, 2020 was a trying year for police departments across the U.S.," police Chief David Nisleit said in a statement. "The overall reduction in crime represents the continued work of our police officers every day and on every shift to prevent and reduce crime in our City. In 2021, SDPD will continue to build trust with our communities to stop crime before it starts and keep San Diego one of the safest big cities in the country."

Lt. Andra Brown, of the department's homicide unit, said investigators so far have determined a motive in 25 of the 55 cases they handled last year. She said 10 were gang-related, six involved drugs, five were tied to domestic violence and four involved family members.

Police Department data show the rate of closed — or "cleared" — homicide cases jumped from 66 percent in 2019 to 87 percent last year.

Bishop Cornelius Bowser, a former gang member who works on gang violence prevention and intervention, said clearance rates act as "a deterrence to some degree" but don't prevent violence.

Cindy Burke, the director of SANDAG's Criminal Justice Research Division, was unsurprised by San Diego's 10 percent jump in homicides given the county saw a 37 percent increase through the first half of last year compared to the same period in 2019.

She expects the year-end numbers to show a countywide spike in homicides larger than San Diego's increase, which she said aligns with nationwide homicide statistics from the FBI.

Burke said the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic likely led to the increase in some violent crimes, but shutdown orders intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus likely led to the decrease in other violent crimes. She pointed to April and May 2020, saying bars closed and reported rapes plummeted.

She said residential burglaries also dropped at the beginning of the pandemic, when stay-home orders were strictest, while commercial burglaries were up during that time, when businesses were often closed for long periods.

Burke said more research is needed to study other possible impacts of the pandemic, including whether bail policies aimed at keeping jail populations lower contributed to an uptick in crimes, if financial uncertainty led to fewer donations to social service agencies, whether mask-wearing increased the anonymity of people committing crimes, and whether the mental health impacts of the pandemic led to greater substance abuse.

Bowser said the COVID-19 pandemic hampered the community outreach work he and others engage in. Before the pandemic, he and others on the Community Assistance Support Team would show up at crime scenes, hospitals and homes to talk to victims. In some cases he would talk them out of retaliating. He also would pray for them and connect them with resources, such as shelters, jobs and counseling services.

"(The pandemic) made it difficult for us to get out there and talk to people, get to the hospitals and do the face-to-face (interactions)," Bowser said.

Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe, chair of the council's Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods committee, referenced the spike in homicides last week when she joined Mayor Todd Gloria, Nisleit and others to announce the launch of a program dubbed "No Shots Fired," which includes efforts to connect gang members with resources and provide them avenues to leave behind the gang life.

In announcing the program, city officials said gun violence increased 28 percent last year.

"It is very traumatic for our residents to experience violence as a victim, witness, bystander or even a parent," Montgomery Steppe said.

She lauded Gloria for joining her efforts to focus on public safety, saying that as policymakers, it "must be a top priority."

Police officials were set to share the crime data with the City Council Tuesday.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

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