The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has made at least 39 arrests for crimes related to the January fires in Southern California.

The LA County fires burned over 47,000 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection website. There have been at least 39 fire-related arrests and at least 27 charges made for felonies such as first-degree residential burglary, attempt to burn and arson during a state of emergency.

“To anyone who believes they can use this disaster as a cover for criminal activity, let this be your warning: You will be caught, and you will be held accountable,” LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a Jan. 17 press release.

Hochman and Orange County DA Todd Spitzer proposed legislation to increase the punishment for looting during a state emergency to a state prison sentence and make the crime a strike under California’s Three Strikes law, which increases sentences for repeat felons, according to a Jan. 14 press release. The proposal would also create a new looting offense of trespassing with intent to commit larceny, which is currently not a crime under California law.

Hochman added in the press release that current laws do not ensure that individuals in violation of the law are held fully accountable.

“Opportunistic burglars and looters who target fire victims in their time of crisis are not only breaking the law,” Hochman said in the press release. “They are further deepening the suffering of those already facing unimaginable loss.”

However, Dr. Risa Grand, a forensic psychiatrist, said context is critical to cases of arson.

“You have to look at what was going on,” she said. “Was this a copycat arson? Was somebody attention-seeking, and they wanted to either play the role of the hero and put the fire out that they started, … or is it something that there is a psychotic part of them?”

Grand said she thinks looting committed during the LA County fires was not done for survival during an uncertain time but rather for personal gain.

“This is not someone going in because they’re afraid they’re not going to have diapers and water because of a natural disaster,” Grand said. “This is an opportunistic type of crime.”

Under a mutual aid agreement with the Santa Monica Police Department, UCPD was involved in making five arrests related to the LA County fires, according to the City of Santa Monica website.

Jeffrey Chobanian, acting captain of UCPD’s administrative bureau, said UCPD’s primary mutual aid agreement is with other University of California campuses. The agreement is made upfront so the police department can make a request in the case of a preplanned event or a sudden emergency.

In the case where assistance from other UC campuses is not practical, UCPD also has other agreements with surrounding Beverly Hills, Culver City and Santa Monica police departments.

The department made its first arrest Jan. 10 at 1 a.m., three days after the start of the fires, when a driver, the registered owner of a handgun, revealed to officers that he was in possession of the handgun during a traffic stop.

The handgun and ammunition were concealed in a black backpack, a violation of a code that prohibits the concealed carry of a weapon in a vehicle, according to the City of Santa Monica website.

At 4:20 a.m. on Jan. 10, SMPD and UCPD officers made four arrests during a traffic stop in an evacuation zone in Santa Monica. The license plates did not belong to the vehicle and the windows were darkly tinted, police said.

During a search of the vehicle, officers discovered the occupants of the car possessed many key fobs, a key fob programmer, a window breaker, a saw and gloves.

The officers arrested all of the people in the vehicle for intent to commit a felony. The driver was arrested for fake/fraudulent license plates and misappropriation of lost property.

UCPD also arrested someone for arson Jan. 16.

[Related: UCPD arrests one person suspected for arson, possession of illegal weapon]

James Echols, UCPD’s patrol division lieutenant, said UCPD made an assessment of its own staffing to determine whether it could engage in mutual aid during the fires.

“We made an assessment of our own to determine what lending resources would do to our staffing level, … how close the fire was approaching upon us, how busy we were, how many calls for service,” he said. “We decided the appropriate amount of resources to send to help out while maintaining our own adequate staffing level here.”

Echols added that being in an evacuation zone during an evacuation period – a violation of California law – is a crime that precipitated further law enforcement action.

“It’s very tempting to some criminals when these things happen because their thinking is that they can commit these crimes unseen and undetected,” he said.

Grand added that when a natural disaster happens, crimes can be a fight or flight response to experiencing trauma.

“Any time that there’s a traumatic event or traumatic experience in which people have the opportunity to unfortunately benefit from other people’s losses, we see an increase in crime,” she said.