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The number of crimes reported to Carthage police in 2011 was down compared to past years and the number of those crimes that were solved was up, making for a positive 2011 Year End Report for the Carthage Police Department.
Carthage Police Chief Greg Dagnan said, despite a steadily rising number of calls for service, which topped out at more than 32,400 in 2011, the number of crimes reported in Carthage is generally down and the number of crimes solved is generally up.
“We certainly had the lowest crime rate in four years. 2007 was another low crime rate year,” Dagnan told the Carthage City Council on Jan. 24. “What is really quite remarkable about this is since 2007, we’ve seen a 40 percent increase in calls for service. We’re at about 32,500 calls for service. We know that the population has increased, we know that after the tornado we had a huge population influx and still yet, crime is going down.”
Dagnan pointed to the number of crimes against people, larceny, rape, murder, manslaughter, robbery, assault and others, which were solved in 2011.
The report shows that the number of these “Part One” crimes was down to 665, the lowest number since 2007 when there were 582 of these kinds of crimes. The number of these crimes where police were able to send a request for charges to the prosecutor was up to 399, meaning 60 percent of these crimes were what they FBI would call solved in its baseline crime index called the Uniform Crime Report.
“Typically, nationally, it’s around 30 percent of all Part One crimes are solved,” Dagnan said. “Last year we solved around 40 percent and I was very happy with that. This year, 60 percent of our Part One crimes are solved, and solved means that someone was arrested or at least a charge was sent to a prosecutor.”
Another priority area for Carthage police officers is preventing traffic accidents.
In 2011, police reported 199 traffic crashes, the latest in a trend of lower number of traffic crashes that stretches at least back to 2008, when there were 248 crashes.
“Certainly accidents, I feel very strongly, are something that you can prevent and they are prevented through diligent traffic enforcement, especially in areas where accidents commonly happen,” Dagnan said. “What is interesting to me is that we have an extremely low accident rate for a city our size, and we were still able to affect that. When you’re talking about numbers in the 200 range and still being able to affect those, that’s very difficult.”
The number of crimes reported to Carthage police in 2011 was down compared to past years and the number of those crimes that were solved was up, making for a positive 2011 Year End Report for the Carthage Police Department.
Carthage Police Chief Greg Dagnan said, despite a steadily rising number of calls for service, which topped out at more than 32,400 in 2011, the number of crimes reported in Carthage is generally down and the number of crimes solved is generally up.
“We certainly had the lowest crime rate in four years. 2007 was another low crime rate year,” Dagnan told the Carthage City Council on Jan. 24. “What is really quite remarkable about this is since 2007, we’ve seen a 40 percent increase in calls for service. We’re at about 32,500 calls for service. We know that the population has increased, we know that after the tornado we had a huge population influx and still yet, crime is going down.”
Dagnan pointed to the number of crimes against people, larceny, rape, murder, manslaughter, robbery, assault and others, which were solved in 2011.
The report shows that the number of these “Part One” crimes was down to 665, the lowest number since 2007 when there were 582 of these kinds of crimes. The number of these crimes where police were able to send a request for charges to the prosecutor was up to 399, meaning 60 percent of these crimes were what they FBI would call solved in its baseline crime index called the Uniform Crime Report.
“Typically, nationally, it’s around 30 percent of all Part One crimes are solved,” Dagnan said. “Last year we solved around 40 percent and I was very happy with that. This year, 60 percent of our Part One crimes are solved, and solved means that someone was arrested or at least a charge was sent to a prosecutor.”
Another priority area for Carthage police officers is preventing traffic accidents.
In 2011, police reported 199 traffic crashes, the latest in a trend of lower number of traffic crashes that stretches at least back to 2008, when there were 248 crashes.
“Certainly accidents, I feel very strongly, are something that you can prevent and they are prevented through diligent traffic enforcement, especially in areas where accidents commonly happen,” Dagnan said. “What is interesting to me is that we have an extremely low accident rate for a city our size, and we were still able to affect that. When you’re talking about numbers in the 200 range and still being able to affect those, that’s very difficult.”
An interesting note about traffic crashes, however is that while the number of crashes is the lowest in four years, the number of injury accidents in Carthage is the highest in that period at 67.
“If you look at where our accidents have happened, the high accident areas have changed,” Dagnan said. “They are Central at 71 where people are coming into town and they are at Fir and Hazel, where people are coming into town. Both of those areas are areas where people are driving faster, initially, so I have no way of proving this, but I attribute the more injury accidents to more folks coming into town. After the Joplin tornado, our population increased, our tax revenue increased, which tells me that people are coming in to shop here, so I think you’ve got more people who are coming into town who are unfamiliar with it and while we had fewer accidents, they were at a higher speed being at one of those two locations. I think that’s why we ended up having more injuries.”
