Sheriff presents crime trends: solvability up since ALPR deployment, but many variables cited

Deputy Lake Sinai and Captain Ryan Vienna presented August crime totals and longer-term solvability figures to the Public Safety Commission.

Deputy Lake Sinai reported August Part I/II counts for the city: no murders, rapes or arsons for the month; three robberies, one aggravated assault, two burglaries, and two thefts; six fraud/identity-theft reports; and traffic enforcement figures including 270 citations and 196 warnings. Lake Sinai also noted 15 arrests in the month for the citywide reporting area.

Captain Vienna discussed station-level solvability statistics over multi-year periods and described several variables that complicate attribution. He gave solvability rates of about 58% in 2018'19 (pre-Flock in the city's account), 79.2% in 2024, and 72% in 2025 (ongoing). Vienna said technology such as Flock and other camera systems has helped investigators produce timelines and link crimes, but he emphasized changes in law, staffing and external events (COVID-19, Proposition changes, a district attorney's directives, and extraordinary incidents like the Eaton fire) also influence crime and clearance rates.

The captain also provided operational metrics for Flock in the area: he reported 1,580 flagged vehicles in a recent 30-day period out of roughly 630,255 unique vehicle passages through the city in that window, underscoring that flagged hits are a small fraction of overall plate captures.