When viewing crime, it’s often a matter of perspective.
Mark Hanten, captain of San Diego Police Department’s Northern Division, which includes much of San Diego’s beachfront, raised that issue during a recent press briefing.
Hanten offered one example from his own experience: an officer-involved police shooting in the downtown Gaslamp District, to illustrate his point.
“How you see things from your own perspective – that’s powerful,” said the police captain noting he and his colleagues, years ago, had been called to a crime scene outside a nightclub notorious for fighting involving a possible gun. Two men had gotten into an altercation with a bouncer, who’d beaten one suspect up and thrown both men out. The suspects had gone to their vehicle to retrieve a gun.
Responding to the scene, Hanten subdued one suspect, while another officer tried to subdue the other, a very powerfully built man who managed to break away. The incident culminated in a gun battle between police and the suspects near a large crowd.
During the gunfire exchange, Hanten said a suspect, who’d been hit and was down on the ground, “rolled over on his side and began shooting at us again.”
That suspect’s wounds subsequently took him “out of the fight,” said Hanten, adding he called dispatch on his lapel microphone to order in an ambulance.
Later, Hanten was shocked by one eyewitness account of the shooting, who’d seen it all differently from their perspective, causing them to question whether the officers had a clear-cut justification for firing.
“What we learned (from that incident) was the truth is generally a mosaic of people’s individual accounts,” said Hanten, noting other eyewitness accounts, from their perspective, ultimately exonerated the officers showing they’d acted entirely appropriately.
“That was a stark example of that (perspective) for me,” Hanten said.
Noting there’s a widespread “perception” that crime is worse today, Hanten produced statistics comparing 1990 to now reflecting just the opposite.
“In 1990, county stats from SANDAG showed there were 216 homicides,” he said. “Last year there were 84, and now we’re at 35. Countywide robberies in the ’90s were 6,700 versus 2,300 today. Aggravated assaults were at 13,385 in 1990 countywide compared with 6,956 for 2015.”
Asked to speculate on the reason for the crime decline, Hanten answered, “I think the (tough) three-strikes laws (significantly increasing prison sentences for multiple offenders) were instrumental. Criminals were backing off because they didn’t want to get another strike.”
Addressing personal safety, Hanten said its important for people to “refuse to be victims.” He noted there are several things individuals can do besides making themselves and their property safer, including basic things like keeping all doors, gates and windows locked, and valuables out of site inside vehicles.
Hanten suggested people carry protection like pepper spray, and to be “aware of their surroundings” always, avoiding distractions like cell phones or carrying armloads of packages or being in dark or unfamiliar areas – anything making them easier targets. “Those kinds of things are all contributing factors,” he said.
Regarding the burgeoning problem of coastal bike thefts, Hanten counseled people to “register their bikes and write their serial numbers down.” He pointed out it’s difficult to track and “make” positive identifications on stolen vehicles. He added Prop. 47, which makes any theft valued at less than $950 a misdemeanor, makes it even more difficult to catch crooks who have less incentive to avoid committing crimes.
Noting its “a tough time to be a cop,” Hanten was generally pleased by the results of police body cameras, which he pointed out typically demonstrate proper adherence to police procedures on how – and when – to use a firearm.
Hanten cautioned however that there are still difficulties to be worked out with police body cameras use. Among them are the high cost of keeping them turned on and the large amount of storage space they require, as well as their limited visual perspective reflecting only the machine’s point of view.