Henderson Police Chief Glen Allen presented a report to the Henderson City Council at Monday’s regular meeting showing that crime is down for the second consecutive year.
The crime rate in 2005 showed an overall decline of 7.9%, according to Allen, with a 17% decrease in violent crime. Violent crime includes murder, rape and aggravated assaults. They were defined by Allen as Part I violent crimes.
Part I property crimes in 2005 showed a decrease of 6.5%, and burglaries decreased by almost 20%. The only increase was in motor vehicle theft, which rose by almost 10%, the chief informed the council.
Larcenies remained fairly consistent. Allen attributed this to shoplifting and gasoline drive-offs.
Allen’s report included a 10-year comparison of crime statistics and showed that Henderson’s crime rate is the lowest it has been in that period.
The police chief informed the council that the report will be published on the Henderson Police Department’s Web page, with the caution that the report is more “quantitative than analytical.”
“There’s still too much victimization going on,” Allen told council members. He told members that he was, however, very encouraged by some of the grass-roots efforts in the community, especially those behind the Weed and Seed application. Allen told members and guests that Weed and Seed brought a lot of people to the table and is moving the community forward in the right direction.
Allen also reported that 911 calls for service, tracked at 28,058 last year, were “leveling off.” According to Allen, the number of calls had been spiking. The chief heralded this as a good sign. The report indicated that the number of calls decreased slightly from 28,380 in 2004.
“You guys handled 28,000 calls last year. That’s something that needs to be said out loud. Thank you,” council member Garry Daeke told Allen.
According to Allen’s report, there were 159 incidences of violent crime in 2004 and 131 incidences in 2005. These include murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Of the property crimes of burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft, there were 1,617 incidents in 2004 and 1,512 in 2005.
Of a total of 3,069 arrest charges in 2005, 109 of those were committed by juveniles: 27 Part I crimes and 82 Part II offenses.
In 2005, the Henderson Police Department issued 1,911 citations. They investigated 1,907 traffic collisions. Several of those collisions involved personal injury. One was fatal.
In 2005, there were 58 defensive action reports. A defensive action report is required when an officer uses defensive action, physical force, or uses his or her weapon to defend himself or herself, effect an arrest, respond to aggression or resistance, or perform some other lawful action. Also, there were 17 vehicle pursuit reports.
As a result of citizen complaints, there were 16 supervisory investigations and six internal affairs investigations. The categories of citizen complains included use of force, in-custody death, officer demeanor, racial profiling and other miscellaneous complaints. It is noted in the report that all complaints from all sources are documented in writing and investigated, and that in 3,048 traffic stops, 2,960 adult arrests, 1,911 citations, only 22 complaints were received in 2005.
The Henderson Police Department received 2,414 criminal process papers from the Clerks of Court, which included 1,148 orders for arrest, 655 warrents for arrest, and 611 criminal summonses. At the time of the report, 560 active criminal process papers are on file and remain to be served.