Reports of Domestic Violence in Santee Up 67% Since 2008

The rate of domestic violence incidents in Santee rose a whopping 67 percent between 2008 and 2012, according to the SANDAG Annual Crime Report released Wednesday. It was nearly the highest jump in the county- second only to Lemon Grove.

Santee's crime rates were up across the board in 2012 compared to the year before. City Councilmember and SANDAG Chairman Jack Dale announced that fact at Wednesday's council meeting during discussion about cutting the city budget and the number of Sheriff personnel in Santee.

"We went up on all of our crime rates, said Councilmember Jack Dale. "We've got to be careful with that."

"Crime went up in a lot of different cities," replied Santee Sheriff's Station Captain Lisa Miller.

"I've personally been getting more complaints about crime," said Mayor Randy Voepel.

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The report also showed a 25 percent jump in domestic violence reports between 2011 and 2012. To put it in context though, each of the city's covered by the Sheriff's Department showed jumps in domestic violence rates over five years.

Santee’s crime rate for serious offenses— homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft—rose 14 percent in 2012 from the year before.

Santee, with a listed population of 54,197, had 154 violent crimes in 2012, compared with 132 in 2011 and 159 in 2008. That includes two homicides reported here in 2012, 113 aggravated assaults and 132 vehicle thefts.

When it came to solving violent crimes, the Santee Sheriff Station batted .62 last year— above the average for the Sheriff's Department.

Santee’s property crime rate rose 14 percent between 2011 and 2012, but fell 5 percent over the latest five-year period, SANDAG said. Property crimes are burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

The Sheriff's Department solved 26 percent of Santee property crimes in 2012, up 7 percent from the year before- one of the biggest jumps in the county.

How much did Santee residents and businesses lose in 2012?

According to the study, the dollar value of losses in 2012 was $2.06 million in 2012— up 3 percent from the $1.99 million of 2011 and a steep 57 percent decline from the $4.83 million of 2008. The Sheriff's Department reported recovering $633,588 in property in Santee in 2012.

SANDAG reported that in 2012, the violent and property crime rates in the San Diego region both increased for the first time since 2001 and 2003, respectively.

“However, it is important to note that across the seven crime categories, most of the reported numbers were still among the lowest in the past 30 years,” said the report written by Cynthia Burke, director of SANDAG’s Criminal Justice Research Division.

“The number of homicides increased the most, compared to 2011, with preliminary motive information suggesting this was due at least in part to gang-related crime.”

SANDAG also highlighted these figures:

• The region had 107 homicides in 2012, a 30 percent increase from 2011 and the largest one-year jump of the four violent crimes.
• The number of robberies reported across the region rose 5 percent, with increases in all of the location types, except bank robberies, which fell 22 percent from 2011 to 2012.
• While the number of robberies with a firearm rose only 1 percent over the past year, the number of aggravated assaults with a firearm increased by 27 percent.
• A greater number of residential burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts were reported in 2012, compared to 2011. The only exception was nonresidential burglaries, which fell 5 percent.
• Over the past 10 years, the percent of property recovered fell from 46 percent to 21 percent, possibly reflecting advancements in technology and the ease of disposing of stolen property, priorities of law enforcement to focus on violent crime with limited available resources, as well as changes in how this information is compiled and reported.
• At midyear 2012, national violent and property crime rates were also up, compared to 2011, but to a lesser degree than in the San Diego region.

“Increases were greater in the Western region of the United States, but large California cities did not have increases consistently larger than other Western cities,” SANDAG said.

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