I have posted a couple of articles from our local paper on crime statics from our small town America.
This is why TraderPacific, LLC open a Self Defense Products on-line store, www.IndividualSafety.com, and a Serveilance on-line store, www.WannaSafeHome.com. Everyone should be able to help themselves!!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Crime up for 2nd year
Police: More reports don’t necessarily mean more crime
By Lee Hermiston
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Anne Wilmoth only lasted about seven months living on Broadway Street.
Wilmoth, 24, moved to the Broadway Condominiums in late 2006 with her husband, Steve, and infant daughter, P.J.
She said it was not the ideal place to raise her daughter.
“Police were there pretty much every other day,” said Wilmoth, originally from Waterloo. “The main problems were drugs and fighting. There was also lots of littering and vandalism going on.”
People sat on the front steps of the apartment complex and smoked pot in the morning. At other times brawls erupted outside, breaking up just before the police arrived. One of her first nights living there, Wilmoth and her husband heard through their bedroom wall a man beating up his wife or girlfriend. They called the police. Wilmoth said she doesn’t know if the man was ever arrested.
Wilmoth said she never felt threatened while living on Broadway Street, which is located in the Wetherby Neighborhood on Iowa City’s southeast side. But the drugs and violence were not something she wanted her daughter to grow up around.
“I did not like her to see and hear some of the things that went on,” she said.
Finally, in July 2007, the Wilmoths moved to their new home on the north side of Iowa City. The difference, she said, was “like night and day.”
“It’s very quiet, there’s no disruptions,” said Wilmoth. “There’s no drug deals going on in the hallway.”
Wilmoth’s story is an indication of how crime, which has continued to rise since 2006, can differ greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood in Iowa City.
The crimes
According to Iowa City Police data, both reported crime and actual charges filed by officers are up for the second consecutive year. According to statistics, reported crime rose by 205 reports, from 4,072 to 4,277. That’s a 5 percent increase from 2006 to 2007, and it comes after reported crime fell by about 30 percent from 2002 to 2005.
The increase doesn’t surprise Iowa City Police Chief Sam Hargadine.
“I don’t think I’m shocked by that,” said Hargadine. “I think it’s consistent with a spike in the region.”
However, Hargadine and other police argue that higher reports of crime don’t necessarily indicate a higher crime rate. Instead, they say the higher number of reports could be the result of more police on the streets and a more vigilant community.
“Sometimes it’s just reported more often,” Sgt. Mike Brotherton said.
Brotherton said increased enforcement of certain crimes can sometimes create the appearance of an increase in that type of crime. For instance, people didn’t perceive there to be a drug problem in Iowa City until there was a unit in the police department dedicated to tackling drug-related crime, he said.
Hargadine said that there might simply be more people reporting crime, adding that there now are new avenues for citizens to report crime that weren’t available before.
“I think that CrimeStoppers has helped in that regard,” he said.
However, the fact remains that actual charges filed by officers have increased as have reported crimes, something that CrimeStoppers can’t necessarily take credit for. According to police data, charges increased about 5 percent, from 3,997 to 4,186, between 2006 and 2007.
The most common offenses dealt with in 2007 are, for the most part, minor offenses such as vandalism, simple assaults and shoplifting. According to police, shoplifting charges rose from 182 offenses in 2006 to 207 in 2007, a 14 percent increase. Simple assaults also were up slightly, from 502 to 527, or about 5 percent. Vandalism, the most common offense in 2007, rose about 5 percent, from 808 in 2006 to 846 in 2007.
However, one common offense, drug and narcotic violations, dropped significantly from year to year. In 2006, there were 471 drug or narcotic-related charges. In 2007, that number dropped 29 percent, to 336 charges.
Brotherton, who leads the drug and gang unit, said he didn’t know if that was a result of his team taking two months off to handle another case or of a decrease in drug activity in Iowa City.
“We’ll have to see if there’s a trend in 2008,” he said. “We have been very successful in suppressing drug and gang activity locally.”
While the lesser offenses are also the most common, there was an increase in more serious offenses in 2007. Aggravated assaults rose 24 percent from 116 offenses to 144, robberies rose from 46 to 49 and kidnappings rose 300 percent from 2 to 8 in 2007.
The neighborhoods
So where are these crimes being committed?
According to police statistics broken down by neighborhood, the areas that traditionally have had the highest amount of reported crimes remained at the top again in 2007.
The downtown neighborhood always has had the highest reports of crime and continued to have that distinction in 2007, with 1,081 reported offenses. That total is consistent with 2006’s total of 1,077 reported offenses.
With its high density of bars and students, Hargadine said one factor almost exclusively fuels crime downtown.
“Almost everything we do within the late evening and early morning is alcohol-related,” Hargadine said.
Vandalism continued to be the most common offense downtown, though it has fallen steadily in the last five years. Reported vandalism dropped 5 percent, from 244 offenses in 2006 to 231 in 2007.
Fighting, in one form or another, also was a common offense downtown in 2007. Though simple assaults dropped 8 percent, from 168 to 154, aggravated assaults rose from 33 to 46, or 39 percent.
For 25 years, Nancy Carlson has lived in the College Green neighborhood immediately east of downtown. Despite having the second highest amount of reported crime, Carlson said that she and others in the neighborhood feel safe living there.
Like downtown, Carlson said many of the problems in College Green are alcohol-related.
“The major time is when people come back to their residences from the bars around 2 a.m.,” she said.
Carlson said the most common crimes she sees are vandalism and thefts. Through the years, Carlson said signs, an old-fashioned water pump and a snowblower have been stolen in the neighborhood. One night, she said she caught someone trying to steal her shovel.
“It’s frustrating,” said Carlson.
Beyond vandalism, which was down from 70 reports in 2006 to 66 in 2007, larcenies — excluding building and motor vehicle thefts — were the most common offense in 2007. There were 46 reported larcenies in 2007, up 77 percent from the 26 in 2007.
For the fifth year in a row, reported crime also rose in the Grant Wood neighborhood. Since 2003, crime has increased 48 percent in the southeast neighborhood from 250 to 369 reports in 2007.
Grant Wood resident and neighborhood association contact Chris Harms said she sees a lot of young people in the neighborhood with nothing to do, as well as drug activity. Harms said she’d like to see more police in the neighborhood but knows that isn’t always an option.
“I think they’re so stretched thin,” she said. “I think that would be hard for them.”
But Harms has been taking a proactive approach to cleaning up the neighborhood. She has applied for grants to host neighborhood parties and to get a monthly speaker to come to Grant Wood Elementary School to talk about safety topics. People in the area also are working with their friends in the Wetherby neighborhood to get a splash pad for children to play in.
Along with vandalism, simple assaults, burglaries and aggravated assaults were the most common reported crimes in Grant Wood in 2007. Vandalism rose 51 percent, from 49 to 74, and simple assaults increased 56 percent, from 41 to 64. Burglaries went up 20 to 26 and aggravated assaults went up 150 percent, from 8 to 20, according to police statistics.
In other neighborhoods, reported crime:
• Decreased 9 percent in the Southeast neighborhood, from 163 in 2006 to 148 in 2007.
• Increased 4 percent, from 235 to 246 in the Wetherby neighborhood.
• Decreased 7 percent, from 371 to 345 in the Northside neighborhood.
• Increased 17 percent, from 228 to 266 in the Lucas Farms neighborhood.
For more information about crime in your neighborhood, visit www.press-citizen.com/crime.Old problems, new opportunities
Although Hargadine argued that having more officers on the street could lead to more arrests and the perception of more crime in Iowa City, he’s having a hard time putting that theory to the test.
The Iowa City Police Department only has 73 officers. In a city with a population of 63,000, that comes to a ratio of 1.16 officers per 1,000 citizens. The state average is about 1.5; the national average is 1.8.
“It would take 15 officers just to get us up to the bottom of any average,” he said.
In July, the department will hire two more officers to bring the average up to 1.19. Hargadine said it’s not the averages that are important, but what his department can and cannot do with that many officers.
“There’s no community policing,” said Hargadine. “There’s very little crime prevention. Staffing is at a minimum.”
In October, Hargadine sent a report to the Iowa City Council recommending that a total of 13 officers and two sergeants be added to the force, including officers in the patrol, crime prevention, street crime and investigation units.
Beyond adding new officers, Hargadine said the department has some long-term projects. The biggest might be the Johnson County Joint Communications Center, slated to open in July 2009. Currently, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa City Police each operate their own communication centers. Iowa City serves the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety and University Heights police departments. The Sheriff’s Office receives emergency calls from Coralville, North Liberty and surrounding towns, as well as ambulance services.
The communication center would allow all agencies to communicate with each other via radio, something not possible now. “They’re not used to that around here,” said Hargadine.
Until the city gets the number of officers it needs, Harms said community members need to do their part to curb crime.
“I think it’s just going to be an effort on everbody’s part to work at it,” said Harms. “We need more people involved.”
Saturday, May 3, 2008
County, Coralville, N. Liberty report increase in crime
By Lee Hermiston
Iowa City Press-Citizen
As with Iowa City, reported crime in Johnson County, Coralville and North Liberty appears to be steady or on the rise.
Although crime increased in the county from 1,015 to 1,050 offenses in 2007, the more serious crimes such as drug violations, sexual offenses and thefts decreased. However, two offenses — aggravated assaults and burglaries — increased from year-to-year. According to records, aggravated assaults rose 71 percent, from 42 to 72; burglaries increased 18 percent, from 79 to 93.
Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said his deputies are addressing those problems the best they can but admitted there are difficulties.
“It’s really about staffing; trying to manage it with the staff we have,” Pulkrabek said.
Pulkrabek said he has 24 patrol deputies to serve about 30,000 people. Many times, there are only two deputies on duty, he said, which can be a problem if one of them is in Solon and the other needs assistance in Lone Tree.
“It’s a large burden,” said Pulkrabek. “We work closely with other agencies. Thankfully, they’re always willing to back us up. That’s the good thing. We do look out for each other.”
Crime in Coralville also increased from 2,396 total offenses in 2006 to 2,519 in 2007, or about 5 percent. Chief Barry Bedford said that burglaries, which increased 39 percent, from 61 to 85, were one the biggest issues of 2007.
“Burglaries are a concern for a couple of reasons,” said Bedford. “It’s quite invasive… (and) it’s very possible there could be someone home during the incident. It creates the potential for a conflict. Someone could get seriously hurt.”
Other crimes, such as assaults and drug charges, increased slightly from 2006 to 2007. Drug-related offenses increased from 92 in 2006 to 95 in 2007. Bedford said Coralville doesn’t have a drug unit like Iowa City but tries to root out the drug suppliers and sellers.
“I think there’s a significant drug usage problem here,” said Bedford. “I think, unfortunately, there’s a perception that minimal use of marijuana … is just recreation and a lot of people don’t have a problem with that. Obviously, we do because of the law.”
Also in Coralville:
• Shoplifting charges increased from 211 to 263, or 25 percent.
• Robberies decreased from 16 to 9, a 44 percent drop.
• Forcible rape charges decreased from 5 to 3.
In North Liberty, the Police Department could not provide a comprehensive list of criminal charges in 2007. However, according to its incident reports, some crimes were on the rise in 2007. According to records, drug violations increased 47 percent, from 19 in 2006 to 28 in 2007. Additionally, reported burglaries increased from 24 to 25, and robberies went up from one report in 2006 to two in 2007. There also was one reported kidnapping in 2007.
More than 900 children between 1 and 14 die each year in drowning accidents.
Diversion Safes
Though it’s often touted as a recreational weapon, 
If you’re equipped in self-defense tactics, it may be a good idea to carry 
