Solvang Police Chief Mark Valencia on Monday provided the City Council year-to-date crime statistics that showed some crime in steep decline from the previous year.
Law enforcement officers have made 27 felony arrests within city limits in 2022, down from 46 to this point in 2021. Calls for service dropped from 4,885 at this point last year to 3,799 so far this year. And misdemeanor arrests within the city were down from 144 to 76 so far this year.
Data also shows one forcible rape, 21 assaults, 11 burglaries including four residential burglaries and seven commercial burglaries. In addition, there were 34 regular thefts with a total loss of $198,112. About $6,000 in stolen goods have been recovered.
Valencia reported six vehicle thefts so far this year, up one from last year. Four of this year’s stolen vehicles have been recovered.
He said most of those appeared to be the “usual crime of opportunity with people leaving keys in their cars and others needing to get from Point A to Point B.”
There were 21 motor vehicle accidents in the city including two with significant injuries, two people injured.
Officers issued 49 citations, made 18 DUI arrests compared with 22 at this point last year, and towed four vehicles.
Of the 105 cases forwarded to detectives, 97 were cleared by arrest, four remain outstanding and detectives are working on 69 active cases, some of which carried over from previous years or months.
Valencia said there were 71 calls for service regarding transients resulting in 29 reports and 16 arrests. He said calls related to transients “usually go down over winters” with nighttime temperatures dipping into the 30s.
Related
Some projects in Solvang could be required to provide fewer parking spaces and all required parking for certain projects could be waived entirely through in-lieu fees under an ordinance update introduced recently by the City Council.