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Police Operations and Data Analysis Report, Morgan Hill, California
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In its clearance calculations, the UCR program counts the number of offenses that are cleared, not
the number of persons arrested. The arrest of one person may clear several crimes, and the arrest
of many persons may clear only one offense. In addition, some clearances that an agency records in
a particular calendar year, such as 2016, may pertain to offenses that occurred in previous years.
In certain situations, elements beyond law enforcement’s control prevent the agency from arresting
and formally charging the offender. When this occurs, the agency can clear the offense
exceptionally
.
Law enforcement agencies must meet the following four conditions in order to clear an offense by
exceptional means: The agency must have identified the offender; gathered enough evidence to
support an arrest, make a charge, and turn over the offender to the court for prosecution; identified
the offender’s exact location so that the suspect could be taken into custody immediately; or
encountered a circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that prohibits the agency from
arresting, charging, and prosecuting the offender.
TABLE 4-1: MHPD Clearance Rates 2015
Clearance Rate
2012-2015
2012
Full Year
2013
Full Year
2014
Full Year
Previous
3 Yr. Avg.
2015
Full Year
Benchmark
Clearance
Rate
Part 1 Violent Crimes
Homicide
--
100%
--
100%
100%
62%
Rape
67%
50%
67%
61%
50%
37%
Robbery
38%
20%
29%
29%
44%
28%
Aggravated Assault
100%
84%
78%
88%
68%
54%
Total Part 1
Violent Crimes
76%
70%
61%
69%
62%
47.6%
Part 1 Property Crimes
Burglary
22%
23%
20%
22%
9%
13%
Larceny
11%
12%
14%
12%
14%
22%
Motor Vehicle Theft
7%
10%
9%
9%
10%
12%
Total Part 1
Property Crimes
13%
15%
14%
14%
12%
14.9%
Note
: Data in this table provided by MHPD.
Table 4-1 shows that the MHPD clearance rate for violent crime in 2015 was 62.0 percent, and has
been as high as 76 percent, which is substantially higher than the FBI average of 47.6 percent for
communities of similar size to Morgan Hill. On the other hand, the MHPD clearance rate for
property crimes is 12 percent, which is lower than the FBI average of 14.9 percent.
Clearance rate is the most important outcome measure used to evaluate the effectiveness of
investigations. The performance of the MHPD in this area is very good. This indicates that the