In response to community concerns over an increase in residential burglaries, the Manhattan Beach Police Department held a standing-room only town hall on Feb. 11.
Police Chief Eve Irvine attributed the uptick to the November passage of California Proposition 47, which reduced felonies for certain drug and property crimes to misdemeanors.
“We recognize there’s a problem,” said Irvine. “The problem is not just in Manhattan Beach.”
January saw an increase of 16 percent of residential burglaries, according to Irvine. In one night on The Strand, four houses were burglarized. Three of those homes’ doors were open. Such cases where the entry was unlocked or open were up 37 percent.
Meanwhile, burglaries with forced entry were down 12 percent and robbery, which a detective defined as “someone taking property by force or fear” from a person, was down by 41 percent.
Irvine cautioned that because Manhattan Beach’s crime numbers were so low, the percentages seemed bigger than they really were. The actual number of increased burglaries in January was 24, she said.
The chief implored residents to lock and close their doors and windows.
“We need to make ourselves harder targets,” she said. “I know you live here to be near the beach, to get the breeze. You have to close your doors and windows when you leave home.”
Irvine said there was a similar increase in burglaries in August 2013 after Assembly Bill 109, which sent some state prisoners to county jails to reduce overcrowding, was passed. After holding a similar town hall meeting, crime decreased, she said.
“Crime is very cyclical,” she said. “Any time you see a series of crimes, it’s time to have a community meeting.”
Manhattan Beach Police have arrested 55 individuals who were on parole at the county level after serving time in state prison since AB 109 was implemented in 2011, Irvine said. At least five have been arrested more than once.
In order to combat the increase in residential burglaries, the department is teaming up with the police departments of El Segundo and Hermosa Beach to increase patrols. She said those cities were seeing a similar increase in crime.
The Manhattan Beach Police Department also designated a patrol unit to respond to suspicious persons calls, added officers in unmarked cars, increased foot and bike patrols, and was “using probable cause, reasonable suspicion or consent to contact pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, etc.,” one of her slides said.
“We’re stopping everyone who looks suspicious,” said Irvine.
The city council had authorized the department to hire two more officers of top of the 65 they were already authorized to have, she said.
After Irvine’s presentation, several detectives reported on their progress on some of the crimes that shook Manhattan Beach lately.
One of those was the beating and robbery of the Stangers in November, when the couple returned home to a burglary in progress. The suspects stole an unknown number of guns from a gun safe.
The day after the crime, Fred Stanger told the Easy Reader, “It’s going to be so sad. Someone’s going to get murdered with one of my guns.”
Detective Mike Rosenberger said that the LAPD had recovered one of the guns from a shooting in LA and that the victim was “okay.”
Another was the mid-day burglary of Prestige Jewelers in the Manhattan Village Mall last summer. Rosenberger said they found a DNA match between a mask left in the getaway car and a man arrested for another burglary in Westminster, but that there wasn’t enough evidence to file charges against him.
Although it wasn’t a burglary, Fire Chief Robert Espinosa addressed the firebombing of a family’s house on Feb. 4 that the family believed was a hate crime.
“The motive hasn’t been determined,” said Espinosa. “There’s been concern that it was racially motivated. We don’t have any info contrary to that or that would support that.”
Espinosa said that they had been in touch with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives and that the FBI was involved in the investigation. The evidence collected, such as the remains of the lit object, was sent to the LA County Sheriff’s Department for forensic analysis, since the department doesn’t have a lab of its own.
After the meeting, Espinosa said that detectives had canvassed the neighborhood, but no one saw or heard anything.
When the public was allowed to ask questions, one resident, who didn’t give his name, said he was concerned about the incident, especially as the father of mixed-race children.
“Why is it just being handled as arson?” he asked as a small group in the audience applauded. “I don’t feel like [the investigation] has been aggressive enough.”
The incident was “a very ugly stain,” he added. “I’d like to see it addressed very rapidly.”
Sergeant Paul Ford and Chief Irvine said that there was a reason that people hadn’t heard more about what was being done.
“There are things we are investigating that you have no clue about,” said Ford. “We don’t want to tip off the suspect.”
Captain Derrick Abell seemed to sum up the message of the evening as he told residents that they needed to monitor their neighborhoods more closely and report any suspicious activity.
“Now you have to dig deep and do things you haven’t done before,” he said. “At some point, people are going to realize Manhattan Beach is not the place to commit crimes.”
