Violent crimes slightly increased last year in the Santa Clarita Valley, but theft from automobiles and larceny in general increased by 15 percent - according to a report from Sheriff's Department Capt. Anthony La Berge.

Violent crimes actually went down within the city of Santa Clarita.

The number of arrests made by deputies increased in 2007; residential burglaries decreased last year.
In a statement released late Tuesday by the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station, La Berge noted that violent crime in the area increased by 1 percent in 2007.

"Although violent crimes were down in the city of Santa Clarita, we did see a small overall increase of just over 1 percent in total violent crimes," La Berge said. "This increase can be mainly attributed to miscellaneous unfortunate independent incidents, not a serial crime trend."

La Berge added that while there was an overall decrease in several crime statistics across the board in comparison to year-end 2006 crime statistics, there was a 15 percent increase in property-related crimes throughout the SCV, including vehicle burglaries, theft from vehicles, property thefts and shoplifting.

Residential burglaries were down nearly 8 percent in the entire Santa Clarita Valley and are not included in the larceny category.

Approximately 504 suspects were arrested on vehicle burglary/larceny charges in 2007, a 48 percent increase from 2006.

There was also an increase in overall arrests. Deputies made 6,636 arrests in 2007, compared to 5,627 in 2006 - an increase of 18 percent.

In other statistics, deputies responded to more than 2,200 traffic collisions in the city of Santa Clarita, 53,000 calls for service and 4,300 emergency (911) calls. There were also more than 22,400 incident reports filed with the Sheriff's Station and approximately 16,000 citations issued for moving violations.