Is crime on the rise in Sedona?

Not necessarily, Sedona Police Chief Ray Cota said.

Following news of a home invasion in the Village of Oak Creek on July 25, a dine and dash crime spree in Uptown, a May 24 burglary at a business along State Route 179, a meth bust in West Sedona on May 18, and other incidents, criminal activity seems to be on an upward incline.

Cota said spikes can occur, but the city remains one of the safest in Northern Arizona.

“Because we have such a relatively low crime rate, when there is one or two, or even three more incidents, it feels like a lot to the community,” Cota said. “We’ve probably had one or two more incidents that have been reported over and above previous months, but nothing of an alarming nature.”

He said reports are generated by the department on a monthly basis in order to track crime trends in the community.

“One of the things that we’ve been working on is reports that we can provide and review to kind of keep track on how crime is occurring, not just in Sedona, but in the communities surrounding us. We look to see how we compare to the communities around us,” Cota said.

Cota said SPD employees gather data from areas throughout the state, provided by the Department of Public Safety, for comparison.

“When you’re working with small numbers and you put something on a chart, if it goes up by one number or two numbers it looks big,” Cota said. “We’re dealing with single-digit numbers, so when you move from two to three, to five to six, it does look big on a chart. Are we concerned that we have some significant crime trend happening? No, we are not. All these incidents, we know who are involved.”

Violent crime in Sedona, while on the rise since April, still remains relatively low. In the months of May and December, crime rates tend to rise in the city, but typically drop off again annually.

In Coconino County, Sedona’s violent crime rates continually trend below other communities, such as Flagstaff, Page, Winslow and other areas. In Yavapai County, Sedona also trends low in comparison to other communities such as Camp Verde, Prescott and more.

“We’re just comparing population. There are a number of other factors that can impact crime rates. Population is just one, density is another, transitory population is another. Sedona probably has a heavier transitory population because of its tourism and because of its geographic location. Crime rates can be impacted by that with a host of other things,” Cota said.

Over the past five years, the city of Sedona counts among one of the safest communities for residents, he added.

“Most of the violent crimes are relationship-based,” Cota said. “None of these crimes were an unknown or stranger-based incident.”

Incidents of burglary, larceny and auto theft have been on a steady decline since November 2010, according to figures provided by SPD. Incidents of non-aggravated assault remained steady.

“Auto theft in this community is a rare occurrence. Maybe on average it’s one car a month. If it wasn’t for a stolen vehicle back in May we wouldn’t have even had one so far this year,” Cota said.

5Dwight D’Evelyn, spokesperson for the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, said investigators are still looking into the July 25 home invasion that occurred in the VOC.

“Detectives are still assessing all the leads that are coming,” D’Evelyn said. “Folks are encouraged to keep calling in if they have information. They’re especially interested in area residents who might have seen something prior to the incident on the morning of July 25 that might help identify the primary suspect.”

He called the home invasion an “anomaly.”

“We don’t see that much out here,” D’Evelyn said. “Because it’s a serious crime, they tend to think the community is falling apart. That’s not the case. We are very concerned this person is still out there and we want to find him, but I’d say overall stats have remained pretty status quo. In the early part of this year they were low as far as property crime.”

Over the last few years, however, there has been a small spike in home burglaries in Yavapai County, D’Evelyn said.

“Fortunately through Neighborhood Watch, good police work, or a combination of both we were able to bring suspects into custody. In the Village, there was a group of teen pranksters running around ringing doorbells late at night and causing a lot of anxiety with residents. They were eventually found out and counseled,” D’Evelyn said.