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Signal Hill Police Department

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT:
01-22-15 Lt. Ron Sagmit
562-989-7207
[email protected]

SIGNAL HILL POLICE RELEASE 2014 CRIME STATISTICS

The Signal Hill Police Department reports that there were 40 serious or violent crimes reported to the police department in 2014; eight (8) more than reported in 2013. According to Signal Hill Police Lieutenant Ronald Sagmit, “Since 2008, when there was a high of 59 reported incidents, the numbers have been declining and average just 36 serious or violent crimes per year for the last five years”. Lieutenant Sagmit also said, “We do not indicate percentage changes in our statistics since the numbers are so low to begin with. It doesn’t make sense to report a 10-15% change in a particular line item when the actual numbers might differentiate by single digits. That doesn’t provide an accurate picture of what is happening locally”.

“Overall, we did see a significant reduction in property crimes in 2014, particularly in the number of burglaries and auto thefts. Larcenies including shoplifting remained fairly unchanged from 2013,” said Lieutenant Sagmit.

“As I have said in the past and standby today, statistics only tell part of the story,” said Signal Hill Police Chief Michael Langston. “How people feel about living and working here in Signal Hill is the best indicator of public safety. Public safety is a partnership between the police and the entire community. That partnership is on display every day here in Signal Hill when people get involved and call the police and give us the opportunity to get to where the concern is and to provide services. We saw a slight uptick in reported robberies. We know that uptick was specifically related to shoplifting suspects resisting private person’s arrests by store security personnel elevating the crime of shoplifting to a robbery. Most of those people went to jail because someone called the police and gave us the opportunity to respond and help,” said Chief Langston.
Chief Langston said, “The criminal justice system has seen sweeping changes since the implementation of AB109 Prison Realignment in 2011. Thousands of state prison inmates have been released to local rather than state supervision. Crimes that previously resulted in a state prison sentence are now resulting in local county jail sentences or alternate forms of supervised release. Local detention facilities are even being tasked with short-term housing of local probation violators. Proposition 36 in 2012 changed the Three Strikes Law and Proposition 47 in 2014 reduced penalties for many common property crimes and drug offenses. Although these changes have been significant, fundamentally our work has not changed and the partnership with the community continues to help keep Signal Hill safe”.




SIGNAL HILL POLICE DEPARTMENT
2010-2014 Part 1 CRIME STATS

Violent Crime Murder Rape Robbery Aggravated Assaul Property Crimes Burglary Larceny Veh Theft

2010 40 0 3 17 20 401 59 275 67

2011 28 0 3 13 12 471 99 312 60

2012 43 1 3 15 24 536 87 362 87

2013 32 0 2 14 16 554 95 379 80

2010-2014
5 Yr Avg 36.6 0.4 2.6 16 17.6 492.4 80.6 340.2 71.6

2014 40 1 2 21 16 500 63 373 64


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