Crime rate low in Alpine

Data shows gradual decrease since 1985, with occasional spikes

Crime in Alpine has decreased in the years since Chief Darrell Losoya first started serving the police department in 1994.

“It’s safer now than when I started,” he said. “We didn’t have as much transparency then and people didn’t know.”

People like to think about the “old days” as being kinder and gentler, but according to crime statistics, Alpine is relatively safe compared to 20 or 30 years ago, though the data shows occasional spikes.

Losoya said when he first joined the force, there were far more aggravated assaults than are reported now, including domestic violence, which he said didn’t increase locally during the COVID pandemic lockdowns, as it did in much of the U.S.

There is an occasional rash of business burglaries, but very few home invasions, though Chief Losoya urges everyone to lock their doors and said not to depend on video cameras. “They give a false sense of security,” he said.

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program Crime Data Explorer, a project of the FBI, gathers statistics for use by law enforcement, researchers, the media, and the public. The program has been providing crime statistics since 1930, though data for Alpine only goes back to 1985, and is only available through 2020. Law enforcement agencies across the country are currently transitioning to the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), including APD.

See below for a series of graphs, which were created by using data sets from the UCR Program.

Property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.

Losoya said burglaries often go unsolved because property is taken from a yard or an unlocked vehicle with no witnesses.

Violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

There were no reported murders for 16 years between 1998-2013, though six were reported between 2014-2022. They are all either solved or awaiting trial and all of the defendants or suspects knew their victims.

The chart below illustrates reported rape cases between 1985-2020, but it looks different because the definition of rape was changed about nine years ago. According the UCR website, “In 2013, the FBI started collecting rape data under a revised definition and removed “forcible” from the offense name. All reported rape incidents—whether collected under the revised definition or the legacy definition—are presented here.”

More information about the Alpine Police Department can be found here.