A total of 121 warrant arrests have been made in the city of Malibu by the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station between Jan. 1 and May 31 of this year. That represents an uptick in arrests compared to the same period in 2017, when 81 such arrests took place.
As defined by the Legal Information Institute, an arrest warrant is issued by a judge; it allows sheriff’s deputies to take the accused individual into custody for reasons outlined by the judge.
In Malibu, these reasons include “trespassing, drunk driving, drunk in public, petty and grand theft, illegal camping, unlicensed driving, possession of controlled substances, under the influence of controlled substances, battery, criminal threats and others.” These arrests include those made at Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and driver’s license checkpoints.
“Although most of the offenses are not serious, the city and the sheriff’s department are committed to protecting public safety and enforcing the law no matter what the crime is,” Malibu Mayor Rick Mullen said in a statement provided by the City of Malibu.
The sheriff’s department has been making physical arrests or writing renewed warrant citations as part of a warrant operation, according to the statement released by the city. When the department’s regular enforcement is factored in, it has made around 224 arrests in the first four months of 2018.
These numbers suggest that the sheriff’s department has averaged about two arrests per day.
At an April 4 Malibu Public Safety Commission meeting, Lt. Jim Royal of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station said that crime rates in Malibu had more or less remained steady since 2000. Though serious crime “had remained stable,” lower level crimes had increased substantially over that period.
According to the minutes from that meeting, “He [Royal] stated that increase in minor crimes contributed to the public’s misperception that crime is out of control.”
Last year, Royal said, “significantly” fewer arrests had been made between Jan. 1 and May 31.
“One hundred twenty-one warrant arrests for 2018 is significantly higher than last year, which was 81, but it’s in the range of some of the previous years,” Royal told The Malibu Times. “It’s on the high end of a range of previous years.”
In early February, TMT reported the city was fairly safe, based on its fluctuating crime statistics—Malibu does not appear on most crime-tracking websites due to its small population.
“Please continue to report all crimes, no matter how minor. We believe our proactive approach in enforcing all laws and local ordinances is having a significant impact on public safety in Malibu,” Royal said in a shared statement from the city.
If they haven’t already, Malibuites will also see an increased sheriff’s presence on weekends from the City of Malibu and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s 2018 Summer Beach Team program. The program, in place since Memorial Day, will include additional patrolling on Pacific Coast Highway and other roads frequented by large summer crowds.
A statement from the city read, “A primary focus of the Beach Team is to eliminate the consumption of alcohol at the beaches, which results in a significant reduction in the number of assaults, rescues made by lifeguards and injury accidents on the highways.”
The program is set to last through the July 4 weekend.