I-Team special investigation: ‘Crime in our Valley’
New crime numbers uncovered by News Channel 3 are revealing some important trends in the Coachella Valley
In Riverside County service areas, violent crime was down in 2017 nearly 9 percent. Homicides were down nearly 32 percent.
Coachella saw big improvements in 2017 with no homicides and burglaries were down 22 percent.
News Channel 3’s John White went on patrol with Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy George Acevedo who gives a lot of credit to “Operation Safe Coachella” carried out in 2016.
Fifty search warrants were served on Varrio Coachella Rifa gang members and an injunction was filed aimed at stopping gang activity.
On this night, there weren’t any calls and hundreds of people were hanging out at Bagdouma Park with kids playing soccer.
Acevedo says it’s a big improvement in the city where graffiti is even difficult to find, something that wasn’t the case just a couple of years ago.
In Desert Hot Springs, police are hoping to get similar results.
Crime is down 6 percent but violent crimes are up significantly.
In 2017, there were eight homicides, up 60 percent.
Shootings were up 92 percent.
Police Chief Dale Mondary says a significant amount of the crime is being committed by two gangs.
A sweep in June of 2017 targeted that activity and now a gang injunction is also being enforced.
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin says, “If you want to look at the crime problem, you have to start at gangs.”
He’s optimistic that Desert Hot Springs will start to see results.
“Whenever you’re looking at crime stats, you need to look over a period of time to see what the trends are,” Hestrin says.”
Most other valley cities saw crime numbers that were mostly flat in 2017.
Indio did see increases across the board.
Police Sgt. Dan Marshall also credited the increase to gang activity and said the department was able to use sweeps to put an end to it. Overall, he says crime has been trending down in Indio for five years and expects the numbers will be improved in 2018.
Rancho Mirage Crime Stats:
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