Altadena Vehicle Theft on the Rise, Violent Crimes Decrease

Violent crimes have dropped 43 percent but vehicle theft has risen 10 percent in Altadena since last year, the Altadena Sheriff's Station shared at Tuesday night's Altadena Town Council meeting. 

Reported larceny theft and forcible rape also increased in Altadena, while overall crime decreased, Patch reported earlier this month. The data came from a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department crime summary comparing the first six months of 2013 to the same time period last year and five years ago. 

Sheriff’s Department representative Sergeant Eric Lasko noted at Tuesday night's meeting that though violent crimes have decreased, the department still urges the community to be me more cautious due to the rise of vehicle thefts.

See more recently released Altadena crime statistics for the past year here.

“This is mainly happening because people are leaving their car doors unlocked at night with valuables inside of it,” said Lasko. “We would appreciate it if people started locking their doors of their vehicles at night and that they don’t leave valuables in their cars.”

According to Lasko, during the month of June, there were no homicides, sexual assaults or robberies. Robberies have dropped 62 percent from last year and aggravated assaults have also dropped 46 percent.

Lasko attributed the 43 percent drop in violent crime to the efforts and enforcement of the Sheriff Department's gang unit.

“As some of you may know we made more information available there from our centralized gang unit downtown,” said Lasko. “They sent us two extra enforcers, investigators and a sergeant and that has helped keep down the violent crimes compared to last year.”

Lasko also said that though there hasn’t been a significant rise in crimes involving narcotics, there were 10 narcotics arrests in the month of June. Lasko urges the community to continue reporting any suspicious activities they believe involve narcotics.

The departments were told of a possible case of the sale of narcotics on Ventura, and because of this the unit surveyed the location and was granted a search warrant, which led to the discovery of narcotics.

Lasko urges that the community continue reporting cases like this in order to help Altadena be safer. He also encourages that the community take part in department events like the recent Coffee with the Captain event that brought in 30 people.

What do you think of the Altadena crime trends over the last year? Share in the comments.