Crime in Burbank is showing early signs of returning to — even surpassing — pre-pandemic levels, according to January data from the Burbank Police Department.
More crimes are generally reported in December and January than many other months in Burbank, an analysis of the data showed. And after a period last year of a somewhat reduced number of crimes reported often attributed to restrictive health orders, early figures this year show incidents rising again.
Last month, the BPD reported, there were a total of 277 Part 1 “index crime” reports, up from 263 reports in December, which itself had a marked increase from 222 in November.
Index crimes refer to a handful of major incident types — including murder, aggravated assault, burglary and theft — commonly used by law enforcement to gauge crime rates. Most index crimes saw minor increases from December to January, though robbery reports more than doubled, from four in December to nine in January.
January’s index crime report total was the highest Burbank had seen since June 2018 when 279 incidents were reported. January’s total was also more than 18% higher than that of January 2020 — 243 — and about 21.5% higher than the total five years ago in January 2016, which was 228.
Sgt. Emil Brimway, a spokesman for the BPD, attributed the recent rise in crime to catalytic converter thefts, explaining there have been 48 such thefts year-to-date compared with 13 for the same period last year. He added that vehicle thefts have doubled year-to-date.
Police Chief Scott LaChasse addressed the issue of increased crime during this week’s Police Commission meeting.
“By and large, this is very safe community,” he said. “But we also need to be mindful that it’s not just our community — it’s people that come from other communities, sometimes, to commit crime.”
Brimway also said that while Part 1 index crime reports have recently increased, they have generally been down in the past few years. He provided additional figures this week showing that, from the beginning of the year to mid-February, there have been 394 index crime reports. For the same period in 2020 and 2019, there were 354 and 350, respectively. For that period in 2017, there were 478 reports.
A rarity in Burbank, one murder was reported last month — referring to the death of a Burbank man killed in a shooting. The 24-year-old man, whom police identified as Cedric Brooks Jr., was shot and killed on Jan. 26 at about 1:45 a.m. Officers responding to multiple reports, found Brooks in an upstairs apartment. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Brimway said the BPD continues to investigate the incident, but that no additional information is available.
