| La Mesa is part of the San Diego, CA metropolitan area, has a great year-round climate and has plenty of recreational opportunities. However, it’s also got a very high cost of living, a very long average commute time and a higher than average crime rate. Given the crime rate and that fact that it’s been increasing over the past few years, it may be a good idea to start looking into the available options for home security systems. Overall Crime Rate The overall crime rate in the city is about 13 times higher than the U.S. average. La Mesa is only safer than about 32 percent of the other cities in the country, with residents having a 1 in 31 chance of becoming the victim of some type of crime in any given year. There are about 29.34 crimes per 1,000 residents each year in the city or about 215 crimes per square mile. This is more than twice the California average of 90 crimes per square mile and more than six times the national average of 32 crimes per square mile. Violent Crime Rate About 7 percent of crimes in La Mesa consist of assaults and another 4 percent of crimes consist of robberies. The violent crime rate in La Mesa is 3.3 crimes per 1,000 residents, which is slightly lower than the national average of 3.8 violent crimes per 1,000 residents. However, the robbery rate is slightly higher than the national average. The risk of a La Mesa resident becoming a victim of some sort of violent crime in any given year is about 1 in 303, which is actually lower than the average for California of 1 in 235. Property Crime Rate As in many cities, the majority of the crimes committed in La Mesa are property crimes. About 63 percent of crimes are thefts, 15 percent are burglaries and 9 percent are auto thefts. There are about 29.34 property crimes per 1,000 residents each year in the city, which is higher than the national average of 24.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents. Overall, people in La Mesa have a 1 in 34 risk of being the victim of some type of property crime. Make sure to lock all doors and windows and get a monitored security system to lower your risk of being a burglary victim by at least one-third. Getting a dog may lower this risk even more, as can joining the Neighborhood Watch program. Safest Areas No matter what city you live in, some areas are going to be safer than others. In La Mesa, these neighborhoods include Calavo Gardens, Grandview Drive/Resmar Road and Mount Helix. The most dangerous neighborhood in the city is Alvarado Road/Comanche Drive, so you may want to avoid it should you be looking for a new home. One way to significantly lower crime risk is to simply move somewhere nearby with a lower crime rate. Coronado, Granite Hills, Santee and Chula Vista are a few examples of nearby cities with significantly lower crime rates. Just don’t move to National City if you want a lower crime rate than La Mesa, as it is actually more dangerous there. Police Presence There are 94 law enforcement employees in La Mesa, for a ratio of about 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents. This is less than half of the national average of 3.3 officers per 1,000 residents and the California average of 3.6 officers per 1,000 residents. These officers deal with over 100,000 service calls each year. The smaller size of the police department may mean that it takes them longer to respond to emergency calls and they aren’t able to clear as many cases. The La Mesa police department has a clearance rate that’s a bit lower than the national average of 28 percent at 20 percent, but it actually has a 14 percent clearance rate for burglaries compared to a 12 percent national average. That still leaves a lot of unsolved burglaries. Investing in a video verified alarm system can help make it more likely the police will arrive at your home before a burglar leaves or that they catch the burglar after the fact due to the video evidence that the system provides. Burglaries typically only take about 10 minutes from the time the burglar enters the house to when he or she speeds off with your valuables, so anything you can do to speed up the response times of the police can help. Without video verification, burglar alarms are given a very low priority because the vast majority of them — more than 95 percent — typically turn out to be false alarms. Alarm Considerations La Mesa has an alarm ordinance, which means that homeowners need to register alarm systems with the police before they’re activated. The required permit costs $10 per alarm function per year, so if the alarm has both a silent panic button and an audible burglary alarm, it will cost $20 to register it. Those who use an alarm system without a permit could be fined $100. There are also fines for false alarms. Panic button alarms can’t be canceled once activated. The first false alarm is free, the second will cost $100 and any other false alarms within a calendar year will cost $200 each. For the audible burglary alarms, these can be canceled by calling the alarm company right away or canceling them when the alarm company calls you to verify the alarm. The first false burglary alarm will cost $50 and with each subsequent alarm another $50 will be added to the fine total until the fee totals $400 for the 7th and any subsequent false alarms during the year. This can get expensive, so make sure you fully understand how to operate the alarm system and so does everyone else allowed to enter the house. |
