APD Safety Report for First Half of 2014
July 31,2014
Downtown remains one of the safest places in the City. We had a slight increase in Larcenies from Auto from this time last year, but there have been more visitors and events this past year. Downtown activity continues to grow, especially with the new venues coming on line. The majority of those victims (approximately 80%) are from out of town, and do not practice the concepts of the Clean Car Campaign. We still have (mostly visitors) leaving high value items in plain view in the passenger portion of their vehicles. However, we have had a significant reduction in other larceny related offenses. There has been a slight increase in robberies, but these are mostly snatch type robberies, and not armed robberies. There is also a reduction in aggravated assaults. But, most importantly, there is very little stranger-on-stranger violent crime.
We continue to address quality of life crimes. Zone 5 makes more arrests than any other zone in the department, most are quality of life related. The problem for most of these crimes is repeat offenders, and keeping them incarcerated instead of right back out on the street doing the same thing they do.
Community policing is the norm for Downtown, with a heavy concentration of officers on bikes, segways, and walking. The Predictive Policing concept is working very effectively in preventing crime and efficiently deploying resources.
We continue to stress the Clean Car Campaign throughout the community, but additionally are trying to reach out to our convention and visitor patrons in advance as they represent the largest component of victims.