Dear Editor, In 1998 the Morgan Hill Times ran an article
titled,
“Study Shows Morgan Hill with Lowest Crime Rate.” This study was
taken during the year of 1997 and covered five cities, Gilroy,
Hollister, Salinas, Morgan Hill and Watsonville.
Dear Editor,
In 1998 the Morgan Hill Times ran an article titled, “Study Shows Morgan Hill with Lowest Crime Rate.” This study was taken during the year of 1997 and covered five cities, Gilroy, Hollister, Salinas, Morgan Hill and Watsonville.
The study looked at the Overall Arrest Rate Comparison between the five cities. One category that did go up in Morgan Hill was juvenile arrests, by 27 percent.
I have been concerned about various crimes currently being committed in Morgan Hill. For the first six months of 2004, I have tracked the crime report that is published in the Morgan Hill Times. As noted on my chart, there are 12 different categories of crime that I tracked. It shows that petty theft is by far the number one crime in Morgan Hill, followed by auto burglary, vandalism and arrests and citations.
Many of these crimes could have been alleviated if the victims would just lock their cars and not leave items in the car, such as cell phones, CD players and CD’s. Auto burglary crimes don’t always happen at night.
Cars parked at the major shopping centers in Morgan Hill have been broken into during the daytime. Some of these cars were locked.
Under the category of vehicle tampering, 72 percent of the incidents were for the theft of the rear license plate and sometimes both plates were taken. Grand theft made number 10 on the chart.
It seems that anytime a large construction project is under way, such as Home Depot or the Ford dealership, someone breaks into the fenced area and steals many power tools. This has happened to both of these new businesses. Maybe they should have hired a security guard.
I would say that these different types of crime have increased in the past four years.
Robert Cerruti, San Martin
