Sheriff’s Dept. explains high cost
of crime fighting.
By Ken Gale / Special to The Malibu Times
Violent crime has fallen dramatically in Malibu since the city incorporated 10 years ago. From a high of 840 incidents in 1991 to a low of 315 in 1999 and 316 last year, the latest figure available, violent crime is down 63 percent in this affluent city by the sea, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept.
Violent crimes are labeled “Part I” crimes by the Sheriff’s Dept. They include homicide, assault, rape and theft.
The Malibu pattern roughly followed the national downward trend in violent crime during the 1990s. The high-flying economy, with more people working and making higher wages, is often given as a significant factor in the crime drop.
However, local sheriff’s officials cannot attribute the drop in Malibu violent crime to any one specific factor.
Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Glazer said candidly, “I don’t know why” crime went down in Malibu. Glazer is commander of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, which polices Malibu and many other cities on both sides of the Santa Monica Mountains, as well as the canyons in between. “My department does not take credit,” he said.
Still, noting the apparent downturn in the economy, Glazer said, “When it (crime) turns around and goes up–and it surely will–it won’t hurt to have a good law enforcement program in place.”
Glazer made his comments at a recent meeting of the Malibu City Council Subcommittee on Finance and Administration. The subcommittee was reviewing the sheriff’s budget, looking for possible ways to cut back.
In the past, Councilmember Jeff Jennings has suggested the city might divert money from the sheriff’s budget to spend on its own youth programs.
Sheriff’s Det. Todd Kosisko touted the department’s juvenile intervention teams in high schools, involving students in law enforcement role-playing scenarios and a teen court program in which students judge and sentence their peers cited for minor offenses for possibly helping with the downward trend in local crime.
Such programs, Glazer said, give students the confidence to “come forward freely” if they have information about a crime on campus.
At $4.34 million, Malibu’s contract with the Sheriff’s Dept. eats up more than one-fifth of the entire city budget. That about equals the budget percentages of two neighboring cities, Agoura Hills and Calabasas, which also contract with the Sheriff’s Dept.
Malibu has a much smaller population than either of those cities (13,300 compared to 22,150 for Agoura Hills and 20,450 for Calabasas).
A big reason that Malibu pays a much higher dollar figure for law enforcement, according to Lt. Tom Bradstock, commander of the sheriff’s substation in Malibu, is traffic–especially on Pacific Coast Highway.
It is estimated that more than 35,000 cars travel through Malibu each day on PCH.
In the year 2000, Malibu had a total of 356 traffic accidents (including PCH), compared to 140 for Calabasas and 86 for Agoura Hills (these figures do not include accidents on the 101 Freeway). Traffic ticketing also requires more deputies. It takes more traffic deputies to patrol Malibu roads than for Agoura Hills and Calabasas combined.
Despite its lower population, Malibu also had a higher percentage of Part I crimes: 37 percent for Malibu, 34 percent for Agoura Hills, and 29 per cent for Calabasas.
These higher crime figures are largely attributed to beachgoers and other transients passing through the city on PCH. There are no statistics on how many of those crimes are against Malibu residents, but Glazer said “better than half of the crimes” committed in Malibu are burglaries from cars, and most of those occur in beach parking lots.
Due to the extra visitor/transient activity in Malibu, it takes about twice as many deputies to police the city than are used in either of the other two cities. In a 24-hour period Malibu employs 19.4 deputies over two shifts. Calabasas has 10.4 deputies, Agoura 9.4.
The subcommittee, led by councilmembers Jennings and Tom Hasse, will report its findings and recommendations regarding the sheriff’s budget to the City Council at a later date.