Terre Logsdon – Record-Bee staff
LAKE COUNTY Crime statistics for the year 2005 have been released from the Lake County Sheriff s Office.
But Sheriff Rod Mitchell is cautious when it comes to drawing any conclusions from the numbers, which he said aren t inclusive.
The numbers are based on LCSO geographical beats, which use roads as boundaries, as opposed to zip codes, township or district boundaries, Mitchell said.
Additionally, these numbers do not include information from the police departments of Lake County s two incorporated cities, Clearlake and Lakeport, or the California Highway Patrol, Mitchell said, although they are listed in the LCSO report.
All land mass and the lake are our beats, Mitchell said, and they may assist the other agencies but may not be the lead or reporting agency, so they are not reflected in this report.
This is the first year the LCSO has made the report available online.
We ve had the ability to do this for a long time, Mitchell said, but was hesitant because of the nature of statistics and how they are used.
The data is not in context, Mitchell said, and is of very little value to a person or agency, who wants to use them.
The communities aren t comparable, Mitchell points out, because they are of different population size, geographic areas and demographics, and not all have schools or large parks where people gather.
Any community without a school will have a lower crime rate, Mitchell said.
This report should be seen as a cursory examination of the type of calls we receive in a community, Mitchell said, but you can t compare the communities they are not equal.
The highest incidence of property crimes in the county are for burglary and vandalism, while possession of stolen property is the least.
Kelseyville reported 126 cases of vandalism in 2005, for instance, but a number of those were part of the rash of gang-related tagging sprees in October. Each building with graffiti was a separate incident even if it was done by the same person.
The highest reported violent crime is battery on a person, followed by battery of a cohabitant; both Lakeport and Nice reported 21 cases.
There were a total of 63 reported sex crimes: 13 cases of rape, 14 of statutory rape and 36 cases of child molestation.
For drug- and alcohol-related crimes, public drunkenness topped the list with 296. There were 111 cases of methamphetamine possession reported.
How the data is used in the coming year will determine if Mitchell puts it back online next year. For now, anyone can download the information from the LCSO s Web site at www.lakesheriff.org, then click on Crime Statistics.
Contact Terre Logsdon at tlogsdon@record-bee.com.
