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# Local crime ‘down’ in an up year, chief says
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/local-crime-down-in-an-up-year-chief-says/
- Published: 2002-05-07T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:16:18.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Statistics make it look like crime is rising, but it’s at an all-time low*

Even though crime in the city increased slightly last year, Santa Monica’s police chief isn’t sounding the alarm bells.

The Santa Monica Police Department released its annual report last week, which showed that crime in 2001 rose 4.6 percent over the previous year.

“We are disturbed that it has come up, but historically, it’s insignificant,” said Santa Monica Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. “It’s an increase off of a 38-year low.”

Crime throughout the city peaked in 1993, after rising steadily since the 1960s. Last year’s 4,909 incidents are more reflective of statistics in 1964, Butts said.

Back then, there were fewer residents, fewer tourists, fewer businesses, less foot and vehicle traffic, and no concentrated areas where people congregate like today’s Third Street Promenade.

By the end of 1991, there were more than 10,000 crime-related incidents every year. At the end of the decade, crime had decreased about 57 percent, Butts said. Today, crime is still down 55 percent since 1993.

“We are competing against our success at this point,” Butts said.

Burglaries saw the largest increase last year — up 19 percent, from 602 in 2000 to 720 last year. But again, those statistics are very low when put into historical context. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were close to 3,000 burglaries in Santa Monica each year.

“When I came to Santa Monica there were 2,600 burglaries,” Butts said. “It’s incredible to have this burglary rate for the amount of people and cars in this town.”

And while robberies also increased — 16 percent — they’re significantly lower than the amount Santa Monica experienced in the early 1990s when there were more than 700 such crimes annually.

39C,“We still have less than half the robberies than we did in the ’90s,” Butts said, adding that many of the robberies were “strong arm,” meaning criminals used physical force on their victims.

He also said the city experiences many incidents of transients robbing other transients.

Also to blame for the increase last year were a rash of serial robberies at businesses across the westside, including several hold-ups at fast food restaurants between March and May committed by two Hispanic males. They were subsequently caught. There also were bank robberies last year that nudged up the statistics.

“From time to time, you will have a pattern of serial robbers,” Butts said. “In some ways, they are easier to catch because they are prolific and keep doing it until they get caught.”

The serial robberies also make it appear to citizens and business owners that crime is on the rise because they happen in a short time span.

5AF, “It does create a general unease and anxiety,” Butts said.

The decline in crime over the past decade is attributable to Butts’ approach of community-based police representation on the streets.

“If we network with our community and the community feels comfortable reporting crime then it works,” Butts said.

He also believes that technological advances have allowed more apprehensions of criminals by providing additional information to officers in the field, as well as added analysis of crime trends.

The Santa Monica Police Department also has undergone substantial re-organization, including adding new sections such as the youth services division, that try to reduce criminal-proned populations.

When crime trends are researched, law enforcement officials look at birth rates of males to determine demographically when they will be living in an area at the ages between 16 and 32 years old. Males in this age range commit the most crimes, Butts said. The SMPD’s youth services division tracks this information and focuses on prevention.

Narcotics officers were successful last year in nabbing several drug dealers in the city. The narcotics unit also conducted a three-month investigation that netted 3.5 kilos of cocaine, 2.5 pounds of methamphetamine, two arrests and $24,000 in cash. The unit made another noteworthy seizure — 30 gallons of the date rape drug called GHB and $40,000.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 7, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/050702.pdf?ref=smdp.com)