We’ve seen several discussions (and even a Reddit chart) about crime data in Laguna Beach.  We wanted to take some time to give more transparency to this important subject.  This topic is often misunderstood, leading to misinformation. We hope our article here will provide clarity.

First, there’s been a change nationwide and in California regarding crime reporting.  The pre-2021 and old way was called the Summary Reporting System (SRS) within the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program.  It included this interesting practice:  If one incident involved multiple criminal charges, only the most serious charge was included as the crime from that incident.  The new system, the National Incident-Based Reporting System or “NIBRS,” requires the reporting and classification of all crimes that may have occurred within that single incident.

Second, NIBRS has taken a while to be universally used.  By 2022 in California, we had just 68% of the state’s reporting entities reporting under NIBRS.  Laguna Beach was part of the lagging 32%.  We moved to NIBRS as of October 1, 2024, with the implementation of a new records management system linked with a new computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system.  The CAD’s implementation is still underway.  The new CAD system will have a user-interface that allows the public to see the general location of a crime.  We hope to launch the user interface online by summer of 2026.

Third, and this is pretty important, we should talk about the process of reporting crime stats to the State and to the US Department of Justice.  Let’s take the category of “aggravated assaults” (which are classified as violent crime). The State’s website reports 88 aggravated assault cases for our community in 2023 - but our internal review confirms only 19 cases meeting the criteria.  As noted by our in-house police records expert, “this discrepancy arises from differences in our reporting and classification processes. When we submit data to the State, incidents are reported based on broad, preliminary classifications. For example, an incident may initially be categorized as aggravated assault based on available information at the time. The State then aggregates these preliminary classifications, leading to the higher numbers displayed on their public website.  Internally, we conduct a more detailed review after investigations are completed, which can result in reclassifying some cases.”

Here’s a brief example of our internal review and reclassification of crimes, specifically the crime of aggravated assault.  In March of 2023, Laguna Beach Police Officers completed a vandalism investigation, involving a suspect throwing rocks at the passenger side of three separate vehicles, while he was walking on Laguna Canyon Road. The suspect was arrested for felony vandalism and throwing an object (rocks) at a moving vehicle.  In an interview with the suspect, he stated he threw the rocks at the vehicles because they were coming close to him.  The Department reported three aggravated assaults to the Department of Justice and after the internal review, it was reclassified as a felony vandalism and not three aggravated assaults.

Ideally, and like the three reclassifications noted above, we’d be able to verify historical UCR data to see how many of the 88 cases reported to the State in 2023 should not have been counted in that manner,  But the US Department of Justice shut down one of its UCR database systems in March 2023. As such, we no longer have access to any historical UCR data submitted prior to that time.

This will not be an issue moving forward under NIBRS for 2024, but it is an issue for the 2023 data.  Again according to our records expert, “As a result (of our inability to go back and review UCR data after the database closure), the public may continue to see higher numbers on the State’s website for earlier periods, while our internal records reflect a more accurate and precise count.” 

Lastly, per capita comparisons can mislead.  Just like we don’t have a police department meant for 23,000 residents (we staff for 6.5+ million annual visitors, too), our crime stats won’t look like the stats of places with (arguably) near-constant populations of 23,000 people (such as, say, Oakdale CA or Granite Bay CA). 

This is why the US FBI said this about UCR data (prior to NIBRS): “(this is) sometimes used to compile rankings of individual jurisdictions. These incomplete analyses have often created misleading perceptions which adversely affect geographic entities and their residents. For this reason, the FBI has a long-standing policy against ranking participating law enforcement agencies on the basis of crime data alone. Despite repeated warnings against these practices, some data users continue to challenge and misunderstand this position. Data users should not rank locales because there are many factors that cause the nature and type of crime to vary from place to place. UCR statistics include only jurisdictional population figures along with reported crime, clearance, or arrest data. Rankings ignore the uniqueness of each locale."

We’ll close by saying this:  We have an advanced, thoughtful, well-trained police department with top tier staff.  We use best practices to address crime and quality of life issues at all levels.  Yes, we may see more incidents here given our visitor population, but we’re equipped to handle it.  The Laguna Beach public should feel confident that “we’ve got you covered” in what is and has been a very safe community.

Your understanding of these issues is important to us, so if you have any questions about what we’ve presented here, please ask. We’re happy to discuss this issue further.

Sincerely,

Dave Kiff, City Manager
Jeff Calvert, Police Chief