I have lived in Temecula since 1990. Yes it was a smaller town then, but crime has gotten much worse since then. It is still a safe community, relative to other areas, but not like it was 18 years ago. Seems like there is a bank robbery in the valley once a month these days. My home in Harveston was vandalized, and vehicle theft has risen dramatically as well.
I knew one of the murder victims personally you were talking about in the murder/suicide, and while it didn’t have anything to do with gangs or the local environment, there have been more of these events lately. There was a mans body found somewhere by Jack in the Box on Jefferson within the last year. Some friends I know that work loss prevention at 2 different large box retailers in Temecula have told me that theft is up. Fraud and counterfeiting is up too. And since I don’t visit Pechanga and Pala, but twice a year or so, I haven’t been keeping up on the casino related crime, but to speculate, I bet that they keep most of that bad stuff under the carpet. Bad PR for those places would result in BIG losses for the casinos. I have seen a big brawl once at round bar (Pechanga)though.
