Violent incidents drop in Tri-parishes

The Tri-parish violent crime rate subsided in 2010, down more than 10 percent from the previous year; but a slight spike in property crimes has law enforcement agencies turning to data and questioning locals to temper the rash of theft.

Each law enforcement agency across the country must submit annual crime statistics to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI makes the Uniform Crime Reports available online. The full statistics for 2010 have yet to be posted.

The Tri-Parish Times acquired and examined the 2010 stats as reported to the FBI, the number of murder, rape, assault, robbery, larceny theft, automobile theft and burglary cases, for the Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. Mary parish sheriff’s offices and the Houma and Thibodaux Police departments.

As part of the analysis, the previous four years were researched and a recent trend average was compiled to compare with 2010 numbers. The most recent data was also compared with 2009 figures.

For violent crimes, murder, rape, aggravated assault and robbery, the combined number of offenses handled by the five agencies decreased by 156, or 14.6 percent, from 2009 to 2010.

Property crimes, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft, increased by 848, or 11.9 percent, over the same period. Larceny made up the bulk of the rise, increasing by 13.4 percent.

While it is simplistic to weigh each crime at each agency the same, the contrast between property and violent crimes affirms a multi-agency trend. Only the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office investigated fewer property crimes than the prior year, and only Terrebonne had an increase in violent crimes.

The head officials at each of the five agencies agreed to separate interviews. Most attributed the rise in property crimes to the economy, rationalizing that some first-time offenders turn to non-personal crimes to make money in dire times.

Three common goals the law enforcement agency heads expressed are a more-efficient allocation of resources through data analysis, transparency with the public and a better relationship with those they serve in order to garner more trust, or tips.

The FBI cautions ranking jurisdictions against one another because of the different variables that contribute to an area’s criminality. “We don’t like to compare different parishes because of population and education status,” said Anthony Myles, a FBI supervisor for UCR in Louisiana. “That’s why they don’t like to compare stats between states and even local agencies.”

The reported numbers, however, are not an exact representation of how many offenses each agency has handled. Simultaneous crimes, such as a rape and murder, or auto-theft and robbery, are classified under the more serious offense, Myles said.

TPSO Matching Investigators with Smarter Criminal Base

Terrebonne Parish’s most-violent reported crime rate was sporadic; rape and robbery saw sharp declines from 2009 numbers and four-year trends, but deputies handled three more murder cases than the previous year and aggravated assault reached its highest level since 2007.

Terrebonne Parish investigated five murder cases in 2010, the most of the five agencies.

The number of rape charges in Terrebonne’s jurisdiction decreased by seven, or 21 percent, to just more than an average of two per month. Of the 27 rapes reported, the sheriff’s office made four arrests.

“Rapes are really hard to work, especially when there is children involved. Grownups are a little different,” Bourgeois said. “A lot of them, I can tell you, are drug related. Sometimes a girl doesn’t get her crack or whatever, and she calls in a rape, but it wasn’t a rape. That’s where a lot of those come from. We find that pretty common.”

Reported petty theft offenses increased by 576 from 2009; with 2,315 reported incidents, it was the highest total in four years and topped the average of that period by 13 percent. Bourgeois said the number of property offenses can be driven by the economy and are hard to solve for various reasons, the absence of witnesses and a smarter criminal base being two of them.

As an example, Terrebonne’s sheriff said thieves have learned that law enforcement is monitoring pawnshops and crosschecking serial numbers.

This makes it vital to match various investigative personalities with appropriate cases, Bourgeois said. “It’s not easy to hire a good employee, much less one that’s going to be a good investigator. That, they have to develop and some people develop better than others in those cases.”

The public’s role in crime fighting cannot be stressed enough, he added. “I always ask the public for their help. They don’t realize how important they are. If they see something they think is wrong, it is probably illegal activity going on. Let us know. We’re as far as a phone call away.”

LPSO: Repeat Thieves Plague Area, Monitoring System Wanted

Lafourche Parish violent crimes were each equal to or less than the four-year trend averages, but more than 405 charges of burglary were reported to the sheriff’s office, a 100-plus percent increase from 2009.

The number of property crime offenses fluctuates with the economy, Sheriff Craig Webre said, and the justice system’s leniency on such offenses increases the probability of repeat offenders.

“It’s frustrating because, typically a person who the system considers property crimes as opposed to violent crimes against persons are treated much more lenient in the system and they become habitual offenders,” Webre said.

Some thieves are striking “50, 80, 100 times,” according to the sheriff, who added that he will soon pioneer an ambitious initiative that would lessen repeat offenders across the state.

“I’m going to work with local legislators next session and see if we can enact legislation for repeat offenders to be on a GPS monitoring system when they get released from jail or released from bond,” Webre said. “If you’ve been convicted of this crime and you get re-arrested one or more times, surely that’s an indication that that’s your lifestyle.”

Although aggravated assault increased from 52 to 63 percent between 2009 and 2010, it is still 46 percent below the four-year trend.

In total, Lafourche residents reported 90 violent crimes last year, four more than 2009, but 72 less than the 2006-2008 average.

In what he called a generalized perspective on crime, Webre said drug acquisition is a “common denominator,” in crime and speculated that a down economy can lead people with prescription addictions to consider theft to attain quick money.

The sheriff said his department has benefited from technology through privately and publicly owned surveillance cameras with infrared capabilities and a recent surge in arrests made through positive fingerprint identification. He also said public outreach via Crime Stoppers and other media can increase awareness and curtail crime.

SMPSO Maintains Balance of Technology, Old-School Technique

The downward violent crime trend continued in St. Mary Parish, where there wasn’t a murder case and aggravated assault fell 36 percent from the previous year.

Overall, property crime rose 12 percent, facilitated mostly by a 20 percent spike in larceny.

“A lot of the property crime we were dealing with was on the west end of our parish,” St. Mary Parish Interim Sheriff Mark Hebert said. “We had a lot of farm-related thefts, stolen welding leads and things like that. We had a trend, with the municipalities as well, where we were having a lot of vehicle burglaries. We had a rash of those for a while, and arrests were made and then they quit.”

Like most law enforcement agencies, SMSO maps out data to determine criminal trends, shares it among its departments and targets high frequency areas.

Hebert said the office received a federal grant that permits a patrol unit to target high-crime locations without the burden of handling dispatched complaints.

“They engage individuals on the street, identify people and information,” Hebert said. “They are not interrupted by handling complaints, so they stay focused on what is going on in the community. They are trying to draw information from the community that would lead to progressing investigations that are currently going on.”

Continuing education is a priority, Hebert said, as it is important to make sure fundamental police works, such as evidence collection, continues to improve. He also said it is vital to maintain the proper balance between technology and community contact.

“You can have all the technology you want, but you can’t get away from the boots on the ground,” Hebert said. “That’s where dealing with people, they’ll give you information and kind of steer you in the right direction, then you use the technology that’s available to kind of enhance that information. You have to have both feet in place.”

HPD Credits Narcotics Unit, Public for Crime Drop

The Houma Police Department saw the number of offenses against people plummet in 2010 with a 73 percent decrease in murder cases, 30 percent in robbery, 18 percent in aggravated assault and 13 percent in rape.

Police Chief Todd Duplantis credits the inversely proportioned public participation in crime-watch groups and an internal bolstering of the narcotics division.

The 2009 spike in violent crime numbers, Duplantis said, correlated with illegal drug activity. “We noticed that a lot of the crimes were involving illegal narcotics, so we increased our enforcement in that area.”

And the Neighborhood Watch program has increased from 2 in 2008 to 20 in 2010.

“That’s pretty astronomical,” Duplantis said. “You’re talking about getting into the community, going into front rooms of the residences and meeting them, greeting them and giving them information. We believe that that played a big role in it.”

Still, like the other jurisdictions in the Tri-parish area, the number of property crimes rose sharply. Burglary rose 15 percent; at 359 reported offenses, it was the highest total since at least 2001. There was a 34 percent rise in motor vehicle theft. Eighty-seven vehicles were reported stolen, the most since 2004.

One evolving initiative should serve to curb the property crime rate. HPD initiated ComStat, a data-analysis system, in 2009 to identify frequently targeted areas, which it then relays to the public through community meetings and on a national website, www.spotcrime.com, Duplantis said.

The crime hotspots make residents aware of where they should exercise caution, such as locking homes and vehicles, but the awareness also multiplies the number of eyes the police department has enlisted.

HPD listens to public complaints about high grass, abandoned houses and vehicles and other potential criminal hotspots, Duplantis said.

“Crime, it’s not just the sole problem of the police department,” Duplantis said. “It’s the entire community that needs to be involved in it. We just tell them we need their support for us to be successful. The police are the public and the public is the police.”

TPD: Emphasis on Data, Transparency, Intelligence

Thibodaux Police Chief Scott Silverii was a patrol captain with LPSO in 2010, so the effects of his strategy have yet to be publicly documented. Silverii said 2011 crime is down from 2010, which had already seen reductions from recent historical averages.

There hasn’t been a murder charge since 2008, robbery was cut in half and aggravated assault decreased by more than 20 percent.

“We’re going to continue doing what we’re doing,” Silverii said. “It works. We’re going to continue using data and statistical analysis.”

Intelligence-led policing, Silverii said, means using stats as a part of every decision that’s made. “It’s marrying the self-initiated activity with where the crimes are occurring that has led to, I think, significant reductions in our crashes, our crimes and our crimes against persons.

TPD posts weekly data reports online, on Facebook and the police department’s website. “They can see data like we can,” Silverii said. “It has to be a partnership between us and the community.”

Petty theft and burglary increased by 17 percent and 6 percent, respectively. The police chief said daytime patrol is important in the reduction of property crime, typically believed to be a crime of the night.

“A lot of the deterrence effects, when you’re going to catch those violators, are during the daytime, when they are traveling through the areas and scoping out things,” he said.

Silverii said crime theory teaches that there are three elements to every offense, a motivated offender, susceptible victim and absence of law enforcement or guardian. Through replacing vehicle patrol with officers who can communicate face-to-face, TPD is working to eliminate one of the facets.

“By interjecting ourselves into the community, on foot, bicycle and shaking hands with everybody, right away that lets the motivated offender realize, there is not an absence of law enforcement or guardian,” Silverii said. “I think that has contributed a lot to the reduction in crime. Also, we have more people willing to call into us.”

The Tri-parish area saw a reduction in its violent crimes in 2010 compared to 2009. Crimes against persons decreased by 156 reported offenses, or 14.6 percent, as reported by the three sheriffs’ offices and the Thibodaux and Houma police departments. ERIC BESSON