Crime stats lower for 2008, says chief
Published on Thu, Feb 26, 2009 by Carmell EmoryRead More Local News
At the Feb. 23 City Council meeting, Marysville Police Chief Rick Smith presented the 2008 Uniform Crime Report for crimes in the city. Smith was excited to announce that crime rates were down in 2008 from the previous year.
The department's primary goals are protecting the community, preventing and solving crime, and doing business responsibly. With these goals in mind, they have managed to decrease violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) by 28.6 percent from last year. Robbery in the Marysville community was down to 19 incidents, from 44 in 2007 and aggravated assault cases also decreased to 44 in 2008, down from 53 in 2007.
Property crimes also decreased in 2008 by 21.8 percent. Vehicle theft was down significantly from 379 reports in 2007 to 167 last year. Larceny also decreased substantially to 782 counts in 2008 from a previous 925 in 2007.
Smith noted that he is particularly pleased with these statistics because, with the increase of about 7000 people in the community this past year, the Police Department has been able to decrease crime and make the city safer. He attributed this success to the hard working police officers and a new special teams project called N.I.T.E.
N.I.T.E. stands for Neighborhood Livability Intelligence/Investigation Target Enforcement/Arrest Offenders Education. The new task force first started last October and so far, after only three months, the special projects team has made 118 arrests, 41 of those felonies and 77 misdemeanors. The three officers and one sergeant focus on special projects that range from illegal substance offenders and graffiti crimes to traffic citations and noise complaints. Smith said the unit's main goal "is to find hard-core criminals and get them off the street."
Not only is the police force fighting crimes on the street, but it is focusing on school crime prevention as well. Marysville will be adding another School Resource Officer (SRO) next school year to help prevent crimes on school campuses, and hold meetings with parents and faculty. This past September through December, the district's one SRO filed 459 criminal incident reports and made 131 arrests on four middle school campuses.
Mayor Dennis Kendall and the council members were excited and enthusiastic about the decrease in crime and commended Smith for his hard work and dedication to the city of Marysville.
"Those numbers reflect the great management and leadership of your department," said Chief Administrator Mary Swenson.
The department's primary goals are protecting the community, preventing and solving crime, and doing business responsibly. With these goals in mind, they have managed to decrease violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) by 28.6 percent from last year. Robbery in the Marysville community was down to 19 incidents, from 44 in 2007 and aggravated assault cases also decreased to 44 in 2008, down from 53 in 2007.
Property crimes also decreased in 2008 by 21.8 percent. Vehicle theft was down significantly from 379 reports in 2007 to 167 last year. Larceny also decreased substantially to 782 counts in 2008 from a previous 925 in 2007.
Smith noted that he is particularly pleased with these statistics because, with the increase of about 7000 people in the community this past year, the Police Department has been able to decrease crime and make the city safer. He attributed this success to the hard working police officers and a new special teams project called N.I.T.E.
N.I.T.E. stands for Neighborhood Livability Intelligence/Investigation Target Enforcement/Arrest Offenders Education. The new task force first started last October and so far, after only three months, the special projects team has made 118 arrests, 41 of those felonies and 77 misdemeanors. The three officers and one sergeant focus on special projects that range from illegal substance offenders and graffiti crimes to traffic citations and noise complaints. Smith said the unit's main goal "is to find hard-core criminals and get them off the street."
Not only is the police force fighting crimes on the street, but it is focusing on school crime prevention as well. Marysville will be adding another School Resource Officer (SRO) next school year to help prevent crimes on school campuses, and hold meetings with parents and faculty. This past September through December, the district's one SRO filed 459 criminal incident reports and made 131 arrests on four middle school campuses.
Mayor Dennis Kendall and the council members were excited and enthusiastic about the decrease in crime and commended Smith for his hard work and dedication to the city of Marysville.
"Those numbers reflect the great management and leadership of your department," said Chief Administrator Mary Swenson.
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