Bay Area crime rates down, homicides up

(06-09) 11:59 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Violent crime in the Bay Area's biggest cities dipped in 2007 after two years of increases, and property crimes such as burglaries and thefts were off more than 4 percent, according to an FBI report released Monday. Although the overall trend was positive, the report offered mixed news for many Bay Area cities. The region's 0.3 percent drop in violent crime - killings, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults - was less than the state's 3.2 percent decrease and a 1.4 percent decrease nationally.And 11 of the 15 Bay Area cities with at least 100,000 residents saw their homicide totals either jump or stay flat in 2007. Among those cities was San Francisco, which recorded 98 homicides last year, up from 86 in 2006, even as violent crime overall dropped 1.9 percent.Even with a dramatic drop in killings in Oakland - from 145 in 2006 to 118 last year - the Bay Area's big cities reported a total of 358 slayings in 2007, up from 353 in the year before. The number of homicides fell by 9.6 percent in California and by 2.7 percent nationally.Homicide is "always going to be the last statistic to change," said Police Chief Chris Magnus of Richmond, where the 47 homicides in 2007 were the most in the decade and enough to give the city the highest per-capita homicide rate among California cities with at least 100,000 people.

It's so hard to predict because there are so many factors involved," said Magnus, whose city had 42 killings in 2006. When it comes to many street rivalries in the city, he said, "it's almost impossible to know about it before they decide to settle it with a gun." Magnus said police are making progress, using crime mapping to focus on hot spots, starting a surveillance-camera program, joining a newly formed West Contra Costa County gang task force and keeping officers on neighborhood beats longer so they can gain residents' trust.Richmond has had 15 homicides this year, but violent crime overall was down 20 percent through May, Magnus said.Farther east, fast-growing Antioch saw a 30.9 percent increase in violent crime in 2007 - the largest jump among 65 big cities in the state - and a 9.8 percent increase in property crime.Police Chief James Hyde said one problem Antioch is having is an increasing number of at-risk young people who lack a stable home life. Still, he said, the city is on pace to lower its crime numbers significantly this year, with the number of violent and property crimes down 15.4 percent through May. Antioch has not had a homicide this year after recording 10 killings in both 2007 and 2006. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM