The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office reported an overall decrease in crime in 2022, following three years of increasing crime rates.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office provides services for Goleta, Carpinteria, Buellton, Solvang, and unincorporated areas throughout the county, and is required to compile information on crimes within these communities each year for the state of California.
The annual crime statistic report breaks crimes down into two categories — Part 1 crimes, which consist of violent crimes and property crimes, and Part 2 crimes, which include “lesser criminal offenses” and some juvenile offenses.
“After experiencing three years of increasing crime rates, the communities served by the Sheriff’s Office experienced a 12% decrease in overall Part 1 violent crimes, which is 6% lower than the preceding 10-year average,” Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Raquel Zick said.
“The most significant decreases in violent crime, as compared to last year, occurred in homicide (33% decrease), rape (16% decrease) and robbery (18% decrease).”
In 2022, there were 343 violent crimes throughout all jurisdictions the Sheriff’s Office serves — a 2.8% decrease from the 353 violent crimes reported in 2021 — and 2,282 property crimes — a 13.4% decrease from the 2,636 property crimes in 2021.
There was a slight increase in aggravated assaults, with 257 that occurred in 2022 and 248 reported in 2021.
While the Sheriff’s Office reported a 157% increase in arson cases, there were only 11 more arson cases in the Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction than the previous year, with 18 cases reported in 2022 and seven reported in 2021.
As for Part 2 crimes, the communities in the Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction saw 6,825 of these crimes in 2022, compared to 7,550 in 2021.
There were slight increases in simple assaults, forgery and counterfeit, stolen property, sex offenses, gambling, vagrancy, curfew, and reported runaways.
“The Sheriff’s Office is pleased to see these overall decreases in the number of reported crimes throughout our county,” Sheriff Bill Brown said in a news release for the report.
“This is a trend that we welcome and believe is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our law enforcement and custody professionals, as well as our partnerships with the people we serve and protect. There is still work to be done to ensure that Santa Barbara County remains a safe place to live and work, but we are encouraged by the progress that has been made.”
The city of Buellton had the most significant decrease in Part 1 crimes — with a 35.3% decrease in both violent and property crimes between 2021 and 2022 — followed by Carpinteria, which saw a 19.7% decrease.
Part 1 crimes in Goleta decreased approximately 16%, and there was a nearly 11% decrease in these crimes in Solvang. All other unincorporated areas throughout the Goleta, which includes Isla Vista, saw a 7.75% decrease in Part 1 crimes in 2022.
These areas also saw similar decreases in Part 2 crimes.
The full 2022 crime statistics report, as well as reports from previous years, can be found on the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office website here.