There's a lot of good news in a new crime report compiled by the San Diego Association of Governments.
When it comes to property crimes, residential burglaries were down 11 percent and non-residential burglaries were down 15 percent during the first half of 2015.
But violent crimes were up. "Compared to mid-year 2014, there were a greater number of homicides (39 to 43) and robberies" in 2015, according to the report.
There was also a change in the FBI definition of rape and a much higher rate of that crime was recorded across the county.
"I would say it's pretty stable overall," Cynthia Burke, director of the criminal justice research division at the San Diego Association of Governments. "We saw some increases and decreases but the numbers are so low compared to other cities."
The cities of San Diego, Lemon Grove and National City topped the list for violent crimes. But Escondido saw a rise in violent crime with homicides reported in the first half of 2015 compared to the same time in 2014.
Escondido Police Chief Craig Carter said three of the homicides were related to domestic violence and two were related to gangs.
"It means we need to do a little more in the education realm," he said.
