Ramona crime continues to drop as arrests increase

By Karen Brainard

Ramona’s crime trends continue to fall, said Lt. James Bovet when presenting updated crime statistics at the Sheriff’s Citizen Advisory Group meeting Thursday.

“Our arrests have increased but our reported crimes are down,” he said.

At this time last year the crime rate was 20 per 1,000 people, but that rate has decreased to 10.3.

“My goal is to get it to eight,” said the lieutenant.

Assaults, he said, had risen but are trending down again with 59 reported so far this year compared to 70 at this time last year. Bovet said the majority of assaults are domestic violence-related.

“These are usually between people who know each other,” he said.

Burglaries are down from 182 at this time in 2012 to 80 as of October. Bovet noted that his department broke up several burglary rings this past year. Those committing the burglaries are often addicted to narcotics and steal to support their habit, said the lieutenant.

“It’s just a vicious circle,” he said.

Bovet added that he does not think there is a lack of services to help those addicted but there is a lack of will and family support.

Total property crimes — burglary, theft, and auto theft — have been cut in half since this time in 2012.

Arrests among adults and juveniles totaled 911 so far this year compared to 679 during the same period in 2012. Adult felony arrests jumped from 252 to 373 and juvenile felony arrests increased from 32 to 40. In October, nine juveniles were charged with felonies, more than the average of five over the last six months. For misdemeanors, the number of adults arrested spiked from 272 to 419, while the number of juveniles dropped from 123 to 79.