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Serious crime up in Manteca
2015 bucks downward crime trend per 1,000 residents
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Overall felonies are up 14.84 percent in Manteca. - photo by Bulletin file photo

Burglaries shot up 21.58 percent in Manteca during 2015.
There were 800 burglaries in 2015 including 252 classified as residential, 380 as auto, 129 as commercial, and 39 as other.  That’s up 142 in raw numbers from 2014 but is the same number of burglaries that were committed in Manteca in 2010 — 800.
Overall burglaries in Manteca actually peaked in 2005 with a record 1,265 taking place.
Every category of felony in Manteca jumped in 2015 from murder to vehicle theft as overall felonies were at 2,004, an increase of 14.84 percent over the 1,745 felonies in 2014. There were 406 vehicle thefts in 2015 as opposed to the record 798 in 2005.
Felonies that include crimes such as homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, residential burglary, grand theft, commercial burglary, vehicle theft, and arson are down significantly in the past 12 years Manteca has actually grown by 19,000 residents from 54,975 in 2002 to today’s population of 74,000.
That is mirrored by FBI statistics for Manteca and other cities between 50,000 and 100,000 population based on crimes per 1,000 residents from 2005 through 2014.
In 2014 — the last per 1,000 stats available from the FBI for cities 50,000 to 100,000 residents — shows Manteca is:
uslightly above California and the United States for burglary and motor vehicle theft.
uhalf the national rate as well as being below the California rate for murder and aggravated assault.
usignificantly below United States and California for violent crime less rape.
umatches the United States rate for property crime but is above the California rate.
Police Chief Nick Obligacion said he is waiting for the 2015 per 1,000 statistics to be released in September. If the results show California cities spiking in terms of crime compared to the rest of the country, the chief said he will be willing to draw some conclusions.
Last year was the first time two major changes were in effect — the full impact of Gov. Jerry Brown releasing tens of thousands of convicted inmates early to ease state prison overcrowding and the voters’ decision to change some felonies into misdemeanors.
The inmates released early were not convicted of violent crimes such as murder and rape. They were, however convicted of 10 of the other Part One FBI crimes covering felonies. They range from grand theft that was up 17 percent last year in Manteca to residential burglary that was up 47.37 percent.
Misdemeanors that should have shot up after the November 2014 ballot measure went into effect, were down across the board by 8.62 percent to 1,283 incidents. The only misdemeanor category that jumped was domestic violence going from 286 in 2014 to 343 in 2015 for a 19.93 percent increase.
Crime is also costing Manteca residents more. The value of stolen property was up 13.12 percent to $4,769,510.  Some 42.9 percent of what was stolen, though, was recovered reflecting an increase of 13.37 percent in dollar value.
Manteca has lowered its crime rate per 1,000 residents with a force of only 64 sworn officers down from a peak authorization level of 72 during the last decade.  Manteca has 0.9 officers per 1,000 residents while San Francisco and Los Angeles have 2.9 officers per 1,000 residents. Stockton has 1.17, Modesto has 1.06, and Turlock has 1.12 officers per 1,000 residents
A significant downward trend started after Obligacion became police chief. He was forced to re-deploy resources due to budget cuts and did so in such a manner not to reduce the on-the-street presence of police officers.
Burglaries — auto, residential and commercial — were down 31.74 percent in 2014 before increasing 21.58 percent last year. They dropped from 964 in 2013 to 658 in 2014. They had spiked upward in 2011 and 2012 reaching 1,101 and 1,017 respectively after recording only 800 in 2010. The years 2010 and 2011 were when gang activity last spiked in Manteca.
Manteca has since re-deployed a four-office gang suppression unit that was dropped during the early days of budget cuts due to the Great Recession.