Apple Valley takes a bite out of crime

Sheriff’s Department releases crime stats

By KATHERINE ROSENBERG Daily Press Staff Writer Feb 17-2008

    The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department released their year-end crime statistics for 2007, and Apple Valley is the only local municipality that registered a decrease in overall crime from 2006 to 2007.
    Hesperia and the Victor Valley station — which serves unincorporated High Desert areas such as Phelan, Lucerne Valley and Wrightwood — registered the highest increases in crime, with a jump of 12 percent each.
    The Victor Valley station saw a decrease in Part 1 crimes — considered the most serious or violent — while the Hesperia station saw a 4 percent increase, meaning both stations can attribute the increase in overall crime to Part II crimes, considered to be less egregious.
    In Victorville there was a 6 percent overall increase in crime and in Adelanto it was up 8 percent overall.
    None of the figures account for population growth, however, and local officials say when that is taken into account, the numbers virtually remained steady throughout the entire Victor Valley.
    In Apple Valley, the registered decrease was just 1 percent in overall crime, and an 8 percent decrease in Part I crimes. Aside from going from two murders in 2006 to three in 2007, which calculated a 50 percent increase, assaults, burglaries and car thefts dropped dramatically in the town.
    Victorville was ousted as the busiest station in the county, replaced by Rancho Cucamonga, a city with 70,000 more residents than Victorville, and a coverage area about half the size of Victorville’s 73 square miles.
    In 2007, Rancho Cucamonga officials responded to 25,000 more calls and arrested 1,100 more people than Victorville. But, with 108 deputies in Rancho Cucamonga to Victorville’s 65, each station boasts one deputy per roughly 1,600 residents and Victorville deputies handled 1,661 calls each, about 400 more than each Rancho Cucamonga deputy handled.
    Adelanto deputies actually handled the most calls each, with 30,000 calls for service taken by just 15 patrol deputies, meaning they handled about 2,000 calls each. In Hesperia 37 deputies handled 1,970 calls each, in Apple Valley 35 deputies worked 1,652 calls and the 43 deputies of the unincorporated area responded to 965 calls each.
    Other notable figures were the increases in robbery across the valley.
    In Hesperia, they shot up 64 percent, they jumped 20 percent in Victorville and 5 percent in both Apple Valley and the unincorporated areas. In fact, Adelanto was the only city where robberies decreased, but they were plagued with a 50 percent increase in burglaries.