by Timothy Rutt
According to figures released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the crime rate in Altadena is going up significantly in selected areas.
Overall, violent crimes are down 5.6 percent, although reports of forcible rape have gone up 20.4 percent over last year. Part 1 nonviolent crimes are up 29.3 percent in the past year, with the major spikes in burglary (36 percent) and felony larceny (29.9 percent).
According to the monthly report from community volunteer Carolyn Seitz, the Altadena sheriffs are reporting "in almost all incidents of forcible rape, the suspect or suspects were known to the victim, and forcible rape is sadly one aspect of domestic violence."
As for the increase in property crimes, they mostly come from residential and vehicle burglaries, Seitz said. "We continue to see these increasing rates in Altadena, in no small part because residents continue to carelessly leave valuables in plain sight in their vehicles and leave vehicles parked out in the open, not in a locked garage. The combination of easy access - on the street or in a driveway, and purses, wallets, cameras, phones, computers, iPads or other tablets or readers, MP3 players, designer sunglasses, currency, coins, credit cards and gps devices in plain sight, leave us easy prey."
The complete 119 page report from the sheriff's department is here: http://file.lacounty.gov/lasd/cms1_148405.pdf. Crime stats for Altadena in July are available after the jump.
