The Santa Monica Police Department is deploying an additional team of officers to the downtown area because of a sharp increase in theft linked to the 4th Street Light Rail Station.
Between May 20 and November 20 of 2016, there were 380 Part 1 crimes committed within a 1,000 foot radius of the three light rail stops within the city, according to statistics provided by the Santa Monica Police Department. That’s an increase of 134 instances over the previous year, or 54 percent. Part 1 crimes include arson, assault, burglary, grand theft auto, rape and theft but the bulk of the additional crimes near light rail consisted of theft and burglary cases. Nearly half of those crimes occurred near the downtown stop.
“Any time you have additional people and more tourists, you have an area where criminals come to prey on those kinds of folks,” said Lt. Saul Rodriguez.
But while crime has gone up around the platforms, the trains are a remarkable safe way to travel.
There were only 18 Part 1 crimes committed on the light rail or platform in Santa Monica during the same time period, according to new statistics provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The Expo Line averages about 837,437 boardings every day.
Two of those crimes were aggravated assaults related to the shooting that happened on the Downtown Santa Monica Platform.
The rest of the 16 crimes were thefts, and 14 of those involved bicycles. However, Ramon Montenegro, Public Information Officer for the Sherriff’s Department Transit Policing Division says the bike thefts have ended since November.
“We’ve made a couple of significant arrests of prolific bike thieves who were going up and down the Expo Line,” Montenegro said.
Cameras may be a significant deterrent to crime on the light rail trains, and result in a high arrest rate for crimes that do happen. Every platform has at least one camera with a live feed that can be monitored by Metro employees and sheriff’s deputies. Every car in ever train also has a camera that is constantly recording.
The Sheriff’s department has a clearance rate of about 86 percent, meaning most of the time reported crimes result in an arrest or a citation, according to Metro spokesman Paul Gonzales.
Gonzales describes the Metro system as a “moving city” with 1.2 million boardings every month.
“If you were to compare us with normal city, it’s much safer than any city of its size in the country,” Gonzales said.
kate@www.smdp.com
