Overall reported crime fell by 19.4 percent; Mayor Chris Beutler attributed it to smart policing and good collaboration of the Lincoln Police Department with the community.
LORI PILGER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 7:00 pm
Lincoln looks to be on track for a record-setting drop in crime in 2008.
Overall for the first six months of the year, crimes reported to police fell by 19 percent.
When adjusted to account for a change last fall in how police take reports of gas station drive-offs, crime still was down 13 percent.
“A safe city is getting even safer, and we’ve all done this together,” Mayor Chris Beutler said Thursday at a press conference releasing the numbers.
Calling the drop an “enormous success,” he credited Lincoln police for working smarter and Lincoln residents for being their eyes and ears.
He also gave credit to collaborative efforts, like the Stronger Safe Neighborhoods initiative, for addressing the root causes of crime, turning neighborhoods around and protecting families.
“Together we have sent a strong message to criminals. We will fight back and we will be successful,” Beutler said.
Police Chief Tom Casady, who is known to keep a close eye on statistics, usually cautions against taking too much from short-term trends. But, he said, what he’s seen the first six months of 2008 is pretty hard to ignore.
“I’ve never really seen anything like this during my years,” he said.
Since 1985, the greatest drop in crime was 9.6 percent in 1993.
The drop so far in 2008 is twice that. But Casady points out there should be an asterisk next to the 19.4 percent decrease, to account for a change last year that resulted in police taking 400 fewer gas drive-off reports.
(Now police only take those reports if there are vehicle and suspect descriptions.)
Factoring them out, Casady said crime still dropped 13.4 percent.
In the first six months of the year, police took 145 fewer burglary, 1,103 fewer theft, 59 fewer assault and four fewer auto thefts reports than the same time in 2007.
There were two more rapes and 23 more robberies reported than the previous year.
Casady said the robberies, especially, have his attention.
As for the overall trend, he said it would be pretty hard to offset by the end of the year, considering seven months are down and July pretty much followed the trend.
But the reason behind the drop has him scratching his head.
“You’re going to ask me, I’m sure, ‘why.’ And the short answer is ‘not sure,’” he said.
The long answer?
Casady said it’s attributable to a lot of things: good police work, strategic use of police resources, great partnerships with the community and targeted efforts.
And he said many factors other than what police do or don’t do can factor in. Like weather, for instance. Or even gas prices.
But it’s a hard trend to ignore, he said.
It follows a larger trend. Casady said the city’s crime rate has been on the slide since 1991.
“We hope to keep it heading in a good direction through the remainder of 2008,” he said.
Beutler said the city rightly is celebrating success with the numbers. In a time when the city budget is badly constrained, police still were able to make an impact on crime by focusing strategically on the problems, he said.
Beutler said it’s time to reaffirm a commitment to the Stronger Safe Neighborhoods initiative, a block by block approach to solving the problems that contribute to crime.
“We have put the tools into place that we need to succeed,” he said.
Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.