The litmus test of the effectives of a law enforcement agency in curbing crime in the eyes of the Federal Bureau of Investigation can be found in 12 categories known as the “Part One Crime Offenses.”

The 12 crimes are the most violent and most obtrusive. They are the ones that trigger fear and apprehensions in a community.

Nine of the 12 crimes have dropped in Manteca during the first 10 months of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. Overall, Part One Crime Offenses are down 2.78 percent in Manteca. It’s a trend that Manteca Police Chief Dave Bricker credits to the “dedicated and hard work of our officers” plus the manpower made possible through the Measure M public safety tax adopted by the voters 26 months ago.

In addition, the clearance rate for every individual crime category is up for an overall clearance rate of 27 percent.

Through Oct. 31 there have been:

• no homicides.

• rape or unlawful intercourse is down 17.39 percent from 23 last year to 19 this year.

• robbery is up 3.23 percent from 62 last year to 64 this year.

• aggravated assault is down 11.84 percent from 76 last year to 67 this year.

• commercial burglary is down 13.53 percent from 133 last year to 115 this year.

• residential burglary is up 36.22 percent from 185 last year to 252 this year.

• other burglaries are down 38.89 percent from 36 last year to 22 this year.

• auto burglaries are down 3.69 percent from 597 last year to 575 this year.

• grand theft is up 15.61 percent from 237 last year to 274 this year.

• vehicle theft is down 12.89 percent from 318 last year to 277 this year.

• arson is down 69.57 percent from 23 last year to 7 this year.

•  all other felonies are down 7.98 percent from 539 last year to 496 this year.

Misdemeanor thefts are down 8.82 percent from 669 last year to 610 this year. All other misdemeanors are down 8.78 percent from 3,028 last year to 2,762 this year.

Manteca Police have turned up the heat on illegal drug use. Total narcotic offenses are up 21.6 percent from 426 last year to 518 this year. At the same time the clearance rate is at 98 percent or 416 of the 426 narcotics cases have been resolved in some manner.

Domestic violence cases are down 16.39 percent from 366 last year to 306 this year.

Fraud and forgery are down 13.62 percent from 389 last year to 336 this year.

Non-criminal reports were at 3,325 through Oct. 31, down 8.55 percent from last year.

Service requests dropped for the first time in years going from 32,769 last year to 31,756 this year for a decrease of 3.09 percent.

Arrests are down 11.14 percent from 3,637 last year to 3,232 this year. One in nine arrests are juveniles.

The value of stolen property has increased 16.08 percent from $4,716,590 to $5,474,947. Property recovered has increased 4.21 percent from $2,035,969 to $2,121,755.

High speed pursuits are up 10.71 percent from 28 last year to 31 this year.

Use of force has dropped 16.33 percent from 49 incidents last year to 41 this year.