Crime statistics for 2012 were released last week for the small city of Signal Hill and though property and violent crimes both spiked, the final numbers overall remain comparatively low.
After hitting a five-year low in violent crime with only 28 incidents reported in 2011, the 2.2 square-mile city that is completely encompassed by Long Beach saw a jump with 43 violent crime incidents reported in 2012 according to the Signal Hill Police Department. Of those violent crimes, only one was a murder–the first in the city since 2009. Still, overall violent crime remained below the five-year average and was well below final numbers from 2008 and 2009.
“The instances of random acts of violence are very few and far between here in Signal Hill,” said Signal Hill police Chief Michael Langston in a statement.
Similar to trends seen in Long Beach, however, property crime was at a five-year high in Signal Hill with 536 incidents during 2012. The majority of those property crimes were listed as larceny (362) with vehicle thefts (87) also increasing over 2011 numbers.
The only property crime to go down in 2012 was burglary which dropped from 99 incidents in 2011 to 87 last year.
“In 2011, we restarted the Neighborhood Watch and Business Watch programs, and are working with residents to help educate them about protecting their property,” Langston said.
Percentage changes are not calculated for crime statistics in Signal Hill, a city of 11,000 residents, because of the distortion created by small changes in numbers, police also said.
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