The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said crime dropped 11 percent in 2018 and the most serious crimes reached their lowest point in a decade.
They released this information in the 2018 crime statistics report.
The report said there were 2,311 reported crimes in 2018, a steady drop from the 2,794 reported crimes in 2017.
Overall, crime rates in the county have been declining since 2015.
The sheriff’s office said they credit the continuing decline in crime to the dedication of the sheriff’s office staff.
“We are incredibly fortunate to live in a community where law enforcement, prosecutors, public defenders and the courts are all working collaboratively to improve public safety within our communities.” Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Sheriff Bill Brown said. “The work of our traditional criminal justice partners is greatly bolstered by the cooperative efforts of other county departments, as well as the many community-based organizations that work with us to enhance the safety and wellbeing of our community members.”
The sheriff’s office compiles this crime information and submits it to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report system (UCR). The system gives them a report outlining crime in the past year broken up in two parts. Part 1 is serious crimes; part 2 includes crimes of lesser criminal offenses.
When compared to 2017 the report said violent crimes went down 20 percent. It said the most significant reduction was in robbery, seeing a 35 percent drop and forcible rape declining 39 percent.
The sheriff’s office said they saw a noticeable decline in liquor law violations, public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
According to the crime report, Santa Barbara County saw a 69 percent increase in stolen property and 25 percent increase in fraud and drug possession crimes. The sheriff’s office said they also saw an increase in juvenile status offenses compared to previous years.
This is the Santa Barbara County’s crime report in 2018 versus 2017:
Unincorporated areas:
- Crime went down 21 percent
- 21 percent decline in violent crime
- 20 percent decline in property crime
Buellton:
- 44 percent overall decline
- 100 percent decline in violent crime
- 41 percent decline in property crime
Carpinteria:
- 40 percent overall decline
- 57 percent decline in violent crime
- 38 percent decline in property crime
Goleta:
- 7 percent overall decline
- 2 percent increase in violent crime
- 9 percent decline in property crime
Solvang:
- 41 percent overall decline
- 14 percent increase in violent crime
- 48 percent decline in property crime
