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SLO makes top 10 crime surging list

February 12, 2015

gunWhile crime rates in the United States have been dropping for two decades, in the past five years the San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles area has recorded a 48.3 percent increase in violent crime. [24/7 Wall St.]

Between 1991 and 2013, violent crime in the United States – which includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault – fell by nearly 52 percent. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bismarck, North Dakota had the greatest increase of violent crime with a rate that grew by nearly 160 percent — from 222.1 cases per 100,000 people in 2009 to 575.5 in 2013.

The San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles area was ranked sixth with a 48.3 percent increase in violent crime over five years. In 2009, the area had 260.5 violent crimes per 100,000 residents which soared to 386.5 per 100,000 people in 2013.

The increase in the San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles violent crime rate was driven primarily by an increase in aggravated assaults, which grew by nearly 71 percent between 2009 and 2013 to 316.8 per 100,000 residents. Other types of violent crimes did not have a notable increase over the same period of time.


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As the rest of the country embraces the fundamental individual Civil Rights protected by the 2nd Amendment, California chooses to openly and actively oppress the free exercise of those Civil Rights by law abiding citizens.


Police are but part of the anti crime solution. They are expert professionals at solving crimes and bringing criminals to a court of law. However, given their limited numbers, they can’t protect individual citizens with a few seconds of notice. The only effective preventative measure against a dedicated criminal is the armed law abiding citizen.


As citizens of California, our ONLY path to legally bear arms is via a License To Carry (LTC) a concealed firearm. LTCs can be issued by either your local police chief or, as provided by CA penal code, your county of residence’s sheriff. The CA legislature has removed ever other method to bear arms outside of the home. As law abiding citizens, if we want to see this trend in violent crimes turned around, we must take upon ourselves the responsibility to arm ourselves.


While others offer their opinions, feelings, and general thoughts; I offer peer reviewed, Ivy League Professor written, longitudinal world wide study: “John R. Lott and David B. Mustard, ‘Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns’. The Journal of Legal Studies, 26 (1997), pp. 1–68.”


Dr. John Lott’s subsequent book, More Guns, Less Crime, originally published in 1998 is now on its 3rd Edition circa 2010. He uses data from 1977 to the present day.


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There are way too many comments on here for such an incomplete story. Can’t just throw a single stat out and call it a story. Common sense would leave one to believe that the increase could be gang related. Regardless, why not actually find out how many ARRESTS have been made. Can’t blame the cops for an increase in crime if there is also an increase in arrests, right?

Local cities and the county are throwing money to increase tourism. Could there be any correlation to a greater number of people and visitors to the crime rate? I would believe that the tourism industry is further building an already established homeless society in SLO. I love this county, but we all need to realize that every place has its flaws.


Would love to see a real story tied to the increase in crime.


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This whole story is ridiculous. It takes stats from two years, does not give a source, and draws conclusions. How about taking 1990 and 2013? Or, 1993 and 2013? How about 2003 and 2013? Also, how about giving the source of the statistics?


I remember as a reporter writing a story about a 100% increase in murders in just ONE YEAR! That was B.S. also as the raw number difference was 1 murder the first year and 2 murders the next year. Whoopee ding!


How about a chart showing the number of crimes in each category by year over a 10 or 15 year span along with the change in population each of those years and the number of police on the force, arrests made and convictions acquired, in each jurisdiction, for the same years?


Do some REAL news reporting rather than just stirring the pot?


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As long as violence remains the preferred method of problem solving, it will only continue to grow.


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As a retired police officer I can tell you the two main reasons for the increase for these crime stats was the drop of the number of cops on the streets due to budget cuts and the failure of supervisors to use these scarce resources properly. Paso Robles PD had lost 1/4 of their cops at this time and supervisors forced officers to spend much of their patrol time writing tickets to increase revenue instead of dealing with violent crime.


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And has San Luis Obispo lost 1/4 of their police? How exactly do police, while not writing tickets, “deal” with violent crime? Is there a history of police proactively preventing violent outbreaks by mentally ill people? Are police able to identify who is likely to commit a violent crime before it happens? And if so, what are they able to do about? Is the violent crime in SLO and Paso concentrated in specific areas such that increased directed patrols would reduce the crime?


Or are these just police union talking points?


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When you have more officers to investigate violent crime like gang violence, sexual assaults etc. you have a higher crime solvability rate and more of the violent criminals locked up and away from the rest of society. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out when the violent criminals are in prison the violent crime rate will go down.


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Actually it usually takes some very smart people a great deal of time to look at statistics and figure out what is causal and what is mere correlation. If you’re looking at a statistical increase in violent crime, it doesn’t even mean that there is an increase it could simply mean that a certain population is getting more attention and therefore crime which was previously unreported is now getting reported more.


In this case you aren even making the distinction between random violent crime vs. domestic violent crime, nor discussing the particular population involved. The problem with a lot of “common sense” is that it’s based on a lot of assumptions and generalizations and when a “genius” actually sits down to look at the minute details, what appears to be obvious to those using common sense is actually quite wrong.


So next question, even though you didn’t actually answer any of my first questions (because generalizations are more important than specifics, apparently), do the same officers who were instructed to write tickets investigate violent crimes? Or do officers who are detectives investigate such crimes? Was there a decrease in detectives in Paso? If not, how would that lower the “solvability” rate (not a word, by the way, but I could be wrong after you are the professional).


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By the way, in case it wasn’t clear, I don’t think you really *know* what you are talking about, despite the fact that you are a retired police officer. Instead, I think what you are doing is stringing together “common sense” phrases you have heard to form sentences that sound good. I mean, does every soldier have a solid understanding of battlefield tactics and full knowledge of intelligence data? Of course not.


The thing is, I’m not a professional in this area. My OPINION could be completely wrong. A true professional could come along and probably tear my argument to pieces by discussing the details of the issue, providing evidence and data to support their argument, and being very specific about what worked and didn’t and why. And that, my friend, is exactly what a true professional, someone who I might listen to, would do.


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I feel good. I have been ranting about this to people nearly everywhere. “Snap out of the ‘happiest city in the US bs’, I tell them—you need to wake up! I have noticed–for a long time now–that you can call the police and they just have this jaded look on their face. Recently, outside my home–within about 100 feet of my doorstep-was a homeless male (very aggressive and sociopath type) who raped another male in the bushes near my home. I was at a vantage point and could not see all of it-but part of it I did! Conclusion after I called the police? “Adult consensual sex”. There was not a chance this was consensual sex—but I do know one thing—when cops start shrugging things off–the town is going to hell in a hand basket. I grew up in LA and before I left–you could see them standing over the body of a dead teenage gang member drinking coffee and chatting game scores. We are losing our last remnants of humanness.


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Thank you for calling the police. You did the right thing.


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Jeepers, I don’t think it would take a Rocket Scientist to figure out this is true. Look at how many rapes have occurred at Cal Poly,assaults from homeless people on downtown streets. Drug busts in Paso Robles. I’m just talking about in the last year.


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Jeepers, I don’t think it would take a Rocket Scientist to figure out this is true. Look at how many rapes have occurred at Cal Poly,assaults from lhomeless people on downtown streets. Drug busts in Paso. I’m just talking about in the last year.


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Rats!


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This is the statistical game that government plays with us. Usually as soon as they over spend on all of their benefits the scare tactics begin. “We are going to have to cut police and fire protection”. No mentioned of any cuts for the big wigs. The people say we can’t have that, how much more money do you need? It’s politics 101 as usual. Another person could take the same figures move them around a little and come up with an entirely different set of numbers and conclusions. As mentioned, what is now a reportable crime and what was a reportable crime?


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About a century and a half ago, Benjamin Disraeli said, “There are 3 types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.


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In case my first comment wasn’t clear… This is crooks playing with the numbers (not that hard either to achieve a 40% jump with the lower #s we’re talking about) so they can justify STEALING more money from scaring people.


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couldnt agree more.


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