Merced’s reported crimes are inching up. Here’s the top ones police are responding to

Merced police say there was an increase in reports of both violent and property crimes during the first half of this year, though homicides remained at the same level.

The information from the police department, compiled by analyst Lance Eber, looks at Part 1 crimes — data which is submitted by law enforcement agencies annually to the FBI.

According to the department’s data, reports of overall Part 1 crimes in the City of Merced increased by 5.67% in the first six months of 2020, compared to the same time last year. Of those crimes, violent crimes are up by roughly 4.8%, while property crimes are up about 6%.

Violent offenses include murder, manslaughter, rape, assault and robbery. Property crimes include burglary, larceny, arson and auto theft.

Merced saw no change to murder and non-negligent homicide numbers throughout the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2019. A total of three homicides were recorded by Merced police during the first six months of 2020 (the city reported no homicides in July or August).

Merced County has reported a total of 15 homicides thus far through early September. In 2019, 15 people died from homicide in Merced County, matching 2018’s mark for the number of homicide deaths, and equaling the average for the prior four years.

Merced recorded six total homicides within city limits in all of 2019.

It’s difficult to tell whether crime itself is actually on the upswing in Merced. Case in point, the data only looks at the incidents of crime reported to police by the public — and many crimes go unreported.

April saw the most number of Part 1 crimes recorded by the city between January and June, with 310 for that month.

What role did the pandemic play?

Capt. Don King said it’s hard to tell whether the coronavirus pandemic had a direct impact on the crime numbers. “I think we’d have to get more data to try to mine that out,” King said.

On the other hand, Merced Interim Police Chief Tom Cavallero said he wouldn’t be surprised if some of the crime numbers increased due to people being cited and released more often because of pandemic policies at the jail. Still, Cavallero said that’s only speculation. “It wouldn’t surprise me if it did,” Cavallero said. “It would probably surprise me more if it didn’t.”

“When someone is cited, it doesn’t have the same impact naturally as if they’re booked or handled in a more formal way,” he added. “Of course the early releases from the prison system could contribute to that as well.”

Cavallero said there is a general sense that people are less likely to appear in court for something they would have been booked for pre-COVID-19.

Cavallero did acknowledge the pandemic has derailed some the department’s momentum in community outreach efforts. “I don’t offer that as an excuse but an explanation,” he said.

“I think when we can start getting together again — when humans can occupy the same space again — we’re going to be putting a lot of effort into that community outreach and building even better relationships with the people of Merced.”

Even though Cavallero believes the police department and community have a very good relationship, he thinks it could be better.

“A lot of that is just sort of updating some of the ways we interact with the community, making ourselves more available to (the) community. To communicate with us and using some technology. Catching up with some technology to make it easier for the community to reach us,” he explained.

Social media as a tool

King noted that the police department is actively using social media as a tool, both in terms of outreaching to the public and gathering information.

The department’s Facebook page, for example, is regularly updated with information about traffic, arrests, resources, and incident videos.

“We really tried to make a big push to close the gap between the police and the community by opening up, by really focusing on social media and trying to get people to trust coming to us for help if they need it,” King said.

One of the violent crime categories which saw a large increase was forcible rapes — up 47.06% — with 25 incidents reported during the first half of 2020 compared to 17 the same time last year. February saw the most reports of rape, with eight incidents reported.

Cavallero said it’s now safer for victims of rape to report crimes. Thanks to advocacy groups in the community, those who have been abused can feel more confident in the system. Locally, one of the main organizations involved in that work is Valley Crisis Center.

“We don’t really know if the incidents (of rape) have gone up, but certainly the reporting has and we hope that people— for whatever reason — feel more comfortable understanding that they’re a victim and that there’s no shame in being a victim of a violent crime like that and that they need to report it,” Cavallero said.

“I think every year it gets better where it’s safer for people to come forward,” he added.

Police remain vigilant on streets

Aggravated assault totals decreased by 1% compared to the first six months of 2019, according to the data. Aggravated assault with a gun saw the largest decline in the first six months compared to last year as it dropped by 45%.

Aggravated assault with other dangerous weapons saw an increase of 108.70% over the first six months of 2020 compared to the same time last year.

Merced Police Capt. Jay Struble said the department’s gang unit has been working diligently to keep guns off the street.

“Every gun you take off a gangster is probably good for at least two, three, four shootings, any one of those shootings can end up in a homicide. The constant resources that we’re throwing at these gangs has got to be a huge impact,” Struble said.

Reported robberies increased by 58.54% in the first six months of the year. Armed robbery saw the largest increase of 166.67% with 32 incidents of armed robbery this year compared to 12 during the fist six months of 2019. Strong arm robberies which are robberies with no weapon, increased by 13.79%..

Struble said police have seen more thieves fighting back against — or threatening — loss prevention employees in businesses like big box stores. “As soon as they do that, it changes it from a simple theft to a robbery,” Struble said.

Police said once a suspect displays resistance, most companies have rules to let the perpetrator go and call officers, in order to prevent potential injuries to employees.

Struble said police have seen more thefts bumped up to a robbery status — especially at big box stores — due to aggressive suspects and companies not wanting the liability of employees getting injured.

Plus, nowadays stores and police departments are relying more on surveillance equipment and technology inside their businesses and parking lots, in order to help police try and catch criminals. “They don’t have to take the chance that maybe they would have before because we rely on technology now for a lot of crimes— investigative purposes,” Cavallero said.

Reported burglaries, arson up

Burglaries saw in increase of 22.56%, and forcible entry burglaries increasing by 62.07%. Unlawful entry with no force saw a decrease of 37.18%.

Larceny or total theft not including auto theft, remained nearly unchanged compared to the first six months of last year as it increased slightly by 0.59% with a total of 677. Merced saw a slight increase in auto thefts, up 1.29%.

Police data shows 50 recorded arson incidents in the first six months of the year. This is an increase of 56.25% and up from 32 compared to the same time period last year.

A lot of the reports of arson police have seen are around homeless camps, particularly where warming fires get out of control, according to Struble.

Plus, Cavallero said the increase may also be attributed to a rash of dumpster fires about three months ago in the downtown area and around store fronts. Those lasted about four to six weeks during the first half of the year.

“It was probably a month or a month and a half where it seemed like every third or fourth night there was somebody starting a fire in a dumpster. And of course we would suspect those are more malicious,” Cavallero said.

DUI numbers

According to Cavallero, the police department recorded 133 DUIs from January through July of this year. That number is down from the 174 that were recorded during the same time in 2019.

The Merced Police Department currently has 86 sworn officers of an allotted 98 to police a community of nearly 84,000 people. Plus, the department’s officers regularly respond to calls for assistance from other agencies outside city limits. There are also officers who serve on task forces who operate throughout Merced County.

Struble said four police officer positions have been frozen, one is on long term leave and another position is open. Struble said the department currently has six people in the police academy.