Written by Sasha Reva
The San Diego Police Department just published their 2021 crime report which showed the percentage of crimes that were committed in 2021. The overall crime numbers increased by 13%. According to the statistics, rape increased by 16.3%, aggravated assault by 15.6%, violent crimes by 10.2%, vehicle theft by 21.8%, and property crimes by 12.9%.
San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said that the last two years have been tough for San Diegans and is one of the reasons for the increase in crime, “I think we need to acknowledge that the last two years have been difficult on everybody.” Most recently, the inflation issue and stagnate economy is believed to be a cause of the rise in property crimes vehicle theft. Homicides saw a large increase in Southeastern San Diego. Nisleit said that many violent criminals see the last two years as having a low risk with high reward and think that they will not be prosecuted for their crimes. “They look at risk versus reward. Right now the reward is very high, the risk is very low. They do not feel they will be held accountable.” While the numbers for San Diego are not as bad as other places like San Francisco and Los Angeles, Nisleit says that there is room for improvement and that the department will do better.
Because of the rise in all of those areas of crime, the San Diego Police Department created a sixth homicide investigation team. They are also urging the community to help officers in reporting suspicious activity and are also recruiting more officers.
Photo Cred: ABC 10 San Diego
