Crime stats show decrease
City crime down 21 %
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

Contrary to public perception, crime rates in the city of Jasper have fallen 21 percent in the past year.

According to index crime totals from the state for the city, Jasper reported 790 offenses in 2006 and 624 were reported in 2007.

"I give all the credit to the officers and detectives with this department," said Jasper Police Chief Todd Hunter. "All the way from the dispatch center to more proactive patrol. You are seeing more officers than before and we are encouraging them to stay within their districts.

"We think we are putting out better coverage," Hunter said. "And when there has been an offense, we have aggressively pur- sued it and we have a high clearance rate."

Hunter said that statistics show that crimes are lower in the winter months of October through January.

Breaking down the 2007 violent crime numbers show that Jasper reported one murder, 10 robberies and 248 assaults. For property crimes in 2007, 68 burglaries, 276 thefts and 21 auto thefts were reported. In comparing those figures to 2006, the city's violent crimes are down 17 percent while property crimes is down 23 percent.

What is more impressive is the clearance rate for these crimes through the Jasper Police Department. The clearance rate is the statistic that shows an offense was cleared by an arrest.

In the violent crime category, the murder case was cleared; 11 of 10 robberies were cleared; 226 of 248 assault cases were cleared; 37 of 68 burglaries were cleared; 172 of 276 theft cases were cleared; 28 of 21 auto thefts were cleared.

"I think we can decrease crime even more in the city," Hunter said. "We are going to get to a point where are efforts are going to plateau. We are going to have crime in the city of Jasper unfortunately.

"We have shown that we have been able to decrease crime here for the past three years," Hunter said. "We can decrease it more but I think 21 percent is a huge decrease in overall crime in the city."

Hunter pointed out that the majority of these crimes are narcotic-driven.

"The burglary, theft and auto thefts are typically associated with narcotic crimes as well as the robberies," Hunter said.

He said that all 10 robberies committed in 2007 were associated in some way with narcotics.

Hunter pointed out that the clearance numbers for robbery and auto theft are higher than the actual offenses for the year because some 2006 offenses were solved during 2007.

"These clearance rates are extremely good and above national averages," Hunter said.

In recent years, JPD has stepped up its efforts in its fight against drug activity in the city. Hunter said he believes the amount of activity in the city has been impacted by the stepped up patrols.

"We have more activity than what I would like to see," Hunter said. "We plan on targeting other areas like we have targeted in the past to try to reduce crime in these areas.

"By impacting the narcotics trade, we have impacted crime," Hunter said.

Hunter also addressed the recent reports of an increased gang-related crime activity in the city limits.

"We do have some gang activity and it's been going on since before I got here," Hunter said. "We have always had an underlying gang issue and never seen many crimes attributed to it.

"We are now starting to see more within the schools and lately we had a major assault and robbery that we believe can be attributed to gang crime," Hunter said.

The recent robbery that was committed at Budget Inn was attributed to suspects, which claimed affiliation to a gang out of the Houston area.

"We believe the gang influences are coming from outside the city of Jasper," Hunter said. "It's not anything we can totally prevent. These young men and women are looking to be a part of something and they are finding the wrong organization to be a part of."

The department has one gang officer on staff and a second one will be sent for training soon.

"We are trying to gear up for this," Hunter said. "We have maintained a data base with all those names that we have obtained that claim to be associated with a certain gang."

Hunter said the crime picture is not as bleak as it appears to be.

"It's very obvious to us that crime is down in the city of Jasper," Hunter said.