Crime is up by double-digits in the City of Ripon for the 2019 calendar year.
Spurred by an increase in thefts, Ripon saw its Part 1 crime numbers increase by 10 percent year-to-date through the end of October – a spike that is similarly seen in communities throughout the Northern San Joaquin Valley as cities work to provide resources to accommodate in a spike in population growth.
According to the Ripon Police Department, there were 292 Part 1 crimes committed through the end of October of 2018 compared to 325 that were seen during the same time period this calendar year.
The Part 1 designation refers to the eight crimes that are reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics database – murder and nonnegligent homicide, rape (legacy and revised), robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft, and arson.
The cause of the spike, according to the department, is an increase in the larceny-theft category – 34 more of which have been reported through the same time period.
But the moderate increase, at least in Ripon’s case, does not appear to be indicative of a wider community trend.
According to the department’s annual crime statistics that are reported to the FBI, on a 10-year timeline larceny peaked in 2008 when 336 instances were reported – a number that fell to 198 last year. The dip below the 200 mark was the first time since 2015 that simple theft numbers were at that level, and numbers below that marker were observed only three times in the last decade of annual reporting.
And “violent” crimes in Lathrop – at least over a 10-year span – appear to be declining despite the increase in population.
Over the last decade total assaults peaked in 2009 when 148 cases were reported and last year the total was only 81 – the fourth straight year that the category declined.
There also hasn’t been a homicide in the Ripon area in more than a decade – a streak that was nearly broken twice earlier this year when a man stabbed a woman inside of a mobile home at Caswell State Memorial Park and a month later a man shot at somebody during an arranged meet to purchase a marijuana smoking device and struck a house. Nobody was injured in the shooting, and both suspects in the widely publicized altercations were from Manteca and apprehended by authorities and charged with attempted murder.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
