Wednesday, August 29, 2007

What's not happening

The ususal question from a reporter is open-ended: "What's going on?" But last Thursday, Dale Johnson of KFOR News asked me just the reverse during our monthly interivew on Lincoln Live. So I told him what isn't going on:

  • Church burglaries. We had 14 in the first six months of 2007, but since July 1 there have been none. There were 25 at this point last year, including six in July and August of 2006.


  • School burglaries. They've been up this year, with 32 compared to 21 at the same time in 2006. But there have only been two since July 1, 2007.


  • Thefts from construction sites. Copper, brass and aluminum metal thefts are down overall this year, but it's particularly dramatic at construction sites.


  • Methamphetamine labs. Hard to improve much on this trend.


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chief are you serious about the Meth stats? Are they going down all over the country? If they are , then it is worth having to go to the pharm counter, showing my liscence, signing away my life just to get the only thing that works for a decongestant!

Anonymous said...

PS Awsome job on making such a quick arrest on the Hispanic male,(the one who was harassing the women), the other day! Keep it up LPD!!

Tom Casady said...

Looks like controls on retail sale points for ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are really helping in Nebraska and elsewhere.

Regarding the attempted rape, we are now encouraging all criminals to tattoo their nickname on the side of their neck, and wear their high school ID card on a lanyard during the commission of the crime. I think we have a nominee for our annual award....

Anonymous said...

My church was broken into last year and the guy was put in jail. Do you attribute the drop in church burglaries because you caught at least one burglar or are the churches tightening up security? Just wondering. I'm grateful you caught our guy!

Anonymous said...

LPD does a terrific job, especially considering the skinflint budget (relative to our population) that the city allows you. I also encourage career criminals to get attractive, large, really unique tattoos that will set them apart from the boring crowd. Be a rebel, get inked!

Better security on farmer's AA tanks also helps tighten up the meth mfg material supply, many never even locked those up in the past. Do you get a feeling that some of the thieves/burglars you've snagged over the last few months were also possibly responsible for some of the church and school burglaries and construction site thefts?

This crime reduction should get play in the LJS fishwrap, but to steal a concept from a favorite fictional investigator, it's really like "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" when crime doesn't occur, isn't it? The fishwrap doesn't usually see fit to report it being a curious incident when the dog does nothing in the night-time.

Tom Casady said...

1:23 and 2:02 -

Yes, I think a few key arrests have snagged repeat offenders. One in particular is laying very low, and a couple of others are (finally) in jail for a while.

Lincoln, thought the 74th largest city in the United States, is still small enough that the right arrest can have a noticeable impact.

As frustrated as I sometimes get with $50 bonds, pre-trial diversion, 1-for-8 plea bargains, and a $1 fine for Illegal Possession of a Firearm (true story), I still believe that we can at least slow down criminals somewhat with good arrests.

Anonymous said...

Keep staring at the one playing possum, you'll probably see them at intake again soon. Indeed, when marveling at the litany of case histories (County Attorney web site, got the link from the LPD site) for some arrestees that I see mentioned in the fishwrap, the plea bargain deals given to many repeat offenders, especially repeat violent offenders, almost boggles the mind.

Anonymous said...

Was the $1 fine for someone on probation who had a shotgun (for hunting) in his closet? I think I remember reading something about that, and Judge Foster determining it was not illegal

Tom Casady said...

No! You can read the factual basis to his arrest in a public record document: The City Council's agenda from January 15, 2007. Hamilton complained to the Council about the ordinance, wanted his gun back, and I was asked by the Council to respond to him. Page 67 of this document is my response.

The firearms were two shotguns, one .40 cal semi-auto pistol, and one .45 cal semi-auto pistol.