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Sheriff's lieutenant reports stable calls for service, uptick in larceny and two homicides in late 2024
Summary
Lieutenant David Clark told the Lake Elsinore City Council quarterly crime metrics were largely flat for October through December 2024, with declines in burglary and vehicle thefts but increases in larceny and two homicides. He described policy changes under Proposition 36 that restore some felony charging options.
Lieutenant David Clark of the Riverside County Sheriff's Office told the Lake Elsinore City Council that calls for service for October through December 2024 were "pretty flat" compared with the same months in 2023, but that some crime categories shifted.
Clark, presenting the department's fourth-quarter statistics for 2024, said burglaries and vehicle thefts were down year-over-year while larceny rose. "Burglars are down significantly. Larcenies are up a little bit, and vehicle thefts, as I've been fortunate to be able to report to you, meeting over meeting are down," Clark said.
The report includes several specific measures: two homicides in 2024 compared with zero the previous year; an overall slight increase in Part 1 crime for the July through December period; priority 1 response times averaging 5.73 minutes in October, 6.03 minutes in November and 5.26 minutes in December; and citation counts of 433 in October, 246 in November and 609 in December.
Clark credited a dedicated burglar suppression officer, added July 1, 2024, for contributing to the decrease in burglaries. He cautioned that some increases were linked to greater reporting by businesses: "They're reporting greater trust of business owners and managers to report these crimes," he said, describing that some larceny increases reflected more reporting of thefts after a period of underreporting.
Councilmember Johnson asked Clark to explain Proposition 36, which took effect in mid-December. Clark described the measure as narrowing provisions of Proposition 47 and restoring a felony charging option after multiple theft or drug-related arrests: "...the third arrest again for the similar charges ... the fourth one would be charged with felony. So this was always a great combatant when I was a patrol deputy for your garden variety shoplift," he said. Clark added that deputies and patrol officers will need time to adapt to the change.
Clark also described license-plate-reader technology as an important investigative tool, saying it reduces the time offenders can escape and that the system "seems to be" paying dividends on the city's investment.
In answering a council question about a recent sheriff's deputy fatality, Clark said the deputy rear-ended a stalled vehicle on the freeway and lost his life.
The presentation concluded with department-level context on training, staffing and special deployments for the holiday retail period and the effect of a new burglar suppression officer on measured burglary reductions.
Less critical details: Clark said he did not perform as deep a data dive as usual because "some events over the last week took a lot of my time," and he described domestic-related assaults as the principal driver of increases in some assault categories during November and December.
