sbsheriff
By the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office has released the 2022 crime statistics for the communities it serves. Each year the Sheriff’s Office compiles statistics about crimes occurring within the communities it serves and submits this information to the State of California.
Reports are broken down into two major categories: Part 1 crimes, which are the most serious in nature, and Part 2 crimes, which includes a number of lesser criminal offenses and some juvenile status offenses. Part 1 crimes are further broken down into two subcategories: violent crimes and property crimes. Part 1 violent crimes are offenses that involve force or a threat of force and include criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Part 1 property crimes are theft-related offenses that do not involve threats or force against the victim, including burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.
After experiencing three years of increasing crime rates, the communities served by the Sheriff’s Office experienced a 12% decrease in overall Part 1 violent crime, which is 6% lower than the preceding 10-year average. The most significant decreases in violent crime, as compared to last year, occurred in homicide (33% decrease), rape (16% decrease) and robbery (18% decrease).
Part 1 property crimes also decreased significantly from the previous year by 13%, which is also a 7% decrease against the 10-year average. Statistically relevant decreases in Part 1 property crime, when compared to the previous year, were seen in burglary (23% decrease), theft (11% decrease), and motor vehicle theft (25% decrease). Arson cases rose by 157% due to 11 cases more than the previous year. Many of these cases were generated by city or county Fire Departments who responded to illegal fires within the Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction.
Moving to Part 2 crimes, there was a 10% decrease overall when comparing to the previous year (2021), with almost all categories declining or remaining statistically similar. The largest reductions were seen in the areas of Weapons (11% decrease), Drugs (14% decrease), and Liquor Laws (55% decrease).
Sheriff Brown said, “The Sheriff’s Office is pleased to see these overall decreases in the number of reported crimes throughout our county. This is a trend that we welcome and believe is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our law enforcement and custody professionals, as well as our partnerships with the people we serve and protect. There is still work to be done to ensure that Santa Barbara County remains a safe place to live and work, but we are encouraged by the progress that has been made. The Sheriff’s Office will continue to work diligently to maintain this positive trend.
The Sheriff’s Office is honored to provide policing services for the cities of Buellton, Carpinteria, Goleta, and Solvang. The Sheriff’s Office attributes its effectiveness in maintaining public safety within each of these cities to ongoing collaboration with their city councils, leadership teams, and residents.
Here are the Part 1 crime rates for 2022, broken down by unincorporated area or contract city, and compared to the previous year:
- Unincorporated areas: 8% decrease in overall crime; 8% increase in violent crime (19 additional crimes); 10% decrease in property crime.
- Buellton: 35% decrease in overall crime; 40% decrease in violent crime (4 less crimes); 35% decrease in property crime.
- Carpinteria: 20% decrease in overall crime; 41% increase in violent crime (9 additional crimes); 26% decrease in property crime.
- Solvang: 11% decrease in overall crime; 33% increase in violent crime (3 additional crimes); 16% decrease in property crime.
- Goleta: 16% decrease in overall crime; 43% decrease in violent crime (37 less crimes); 12% increase in property crime.
The Sheriff’s Office is providing detailed breakdowns of the crime stats for review and use by the media, along with several graphics for media use on our website, SBSheriff.org.
[Full report provided below]
Why no posts from the MAGA crowd celebrating this progress? Do they really only want doom and dark and dystopian “facts” instead of reality? (Rhetorical question of course.)
2995: This article is for SB County, not the State of CA. Newsom just called in the National Guard to help deal with San Francisco’s issues. And in LA per LA Times:
After one of its deadliest stretches in recent memory, Los Angeles will end 2022 with fewer homicides and shootings than in 2021, sparking hope that the surge in violent crime over the previous two years is flattening.
The number of killings stood at 373 citywide through Christmas Eve — still well above pre-pandemic levels but a 6% decrease from the same time last year, according to preliminary statistics compiled by the Los Angeles Police Department. The city logged 397 homicides last year — its largest total since 2006.
I was just about to type the same thing. The GOP crowd screaming down with Newsom and lying about crime being at “all time highs” when it’s clearly false. Even Fox fired their chief liar. Does that mean Facts are making a comeback?
This is great news. Though lowering violent crime from 353 instances to 343 instances isn’t a huge difference. Still, I’ll take a 3% drop anytime, over a raise… The 12% drop in property crime is a much better! The Sheriff chart confirms a rise in all crimes during the pandemic with a lowering in this past year. Things look like they’re returning to something of a ‘normal’. We continue to be grateful for our law enforcement teams. May they continue this trend and ALWAYS CATCH THE BAD GUYS!!!
Good to hear! You’d think with all the “sky is falling” reports from certain news outlets and certain commenters that our crime rate would be skyrocketing. It’s not. In fact, CA as a state has a much lower crime rate (per 100k people) than you’d think:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/crime-rate-by-state
In fact, we’re only ranked #20 in the nation. Way to go!