One of the things made evident in the Lincoln Journal Star series running this week, The Core, is that when a lot of problematic tenants get concentrated in a small area (such as a single apartment building or a small neighborhood), the sum is greater than the whole. When a critical mass of trouble-makers is reached, it drives the good people away, and the place spirals downward. This is exactly what happened at 1520 D Street.
All neighborhoods have their characters, and there is a certain "carrying capacity" in the environment for a few chaotic individuals or households. But when the bad actors start to effect those around them to the extent that the quality of life is significantly diminished, good tenants are suddenly looking for a new place at the end of the lease.
One solution rests with landlords. When you're occupancy rate is pushing 20% it's hard to turn down a tenant who can make the damage deposit and pay the first months rent. That might seem better than nothing, even if he or she isn't exactly an upstanding citizen. If you look at our maps of people with arrest warrants, people on parole, and registered sex offenders, the concentration in The Core is very obvious. Obviously, everyone's got to live someplace. I'm not saying you shouldn't rent to an ex-con, a registered sex offender, or a person with an active arrest warrant. But you might want to know the details, ask a few more questions, and weigh the gravity of the tenant's past conduct before you seal the deal. There is a world of difference between someone who spent a couple of years in the pen for burglary in the 1990's, and someone who is still plying their drug trade despite dozens of arrests and convictions. Some landlords do a great job with this, some are asleep at the wheel.
Landlords really need to take advantage of the easy and instant checks at their disposal, and avoid renting to the worst characters. It protects them, because the really bad tenants are eventually going to put them through the purgatory of eviction anyway, and in the process, the neighbor-from-Hades will scare off their better renters. We make available some very good resources for landlords to do simple backgrounds, at little or no cost. These resources are highlighted front-and-center on our public home page. I also have a guide to criminal history checks posted that provides practical advice on how to do a background in a logical order that minimizes expense.
In a matter of five minutes from any Internet connected computer, you can determine if the prospective tenant is a high risk registered sex offender, has served time in prison for a felony, has been convicted of a crime in a prosecution by the Lancaster County Attorney, or is currently the subject of an arrest warrant held by the Lincoln Police Department or Lancaster County Sheriff. These are all free, but for a $10 fee on your credit card you can add a comprehensive list of all arrests by the Lincoln police and the disposition of those cases. For landlords and property managers, we also have a service available that allows them to check police dispatch information to any address they own or manage, so they never need be surprised to learn that the police had been called to their place.
There's not a community I know of where so much is so readily available. I used to call it "Dads' Instant Boyfriend Check." These resources are equally valuable for such people as employers or volunteer coordinators. How you hire a convicted embezzler for your accountant in this day and age is beyond me. All these checks are public record, by the way, they are just particularly accessible in Lincoln compared to every place else.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Bursting the bubble
Last November, I wrote a series on the Chief's Corner highlighting a fragile area of Lincoln: The Southwest Team's A Beat: roughly, the northern-most part of the southwest quadrant of the city. The posts, Veterans Day on the Street, The Denizens of A Beat, and Outside the Bubble, generated a good deal of traffic and discussion.
This week, the Lincoln Journal Star is running a multi-part special report on this area, entitled The Core. Deena Winter, the lead reporter on this series, has been getting a lot of data and information from us for the past few months as she prepared for this series, and she's been on a few ride alongs with the Southwest Team. The resulting special report is an eye-opener for many people who are pretty much oblivious to the kinds of things going on in their own city. Greater awareness is a good thing. We need help, and lots of it. But the police cannot bring this neighborhood back from the brink by themselves--it's going to take a much broader effort. Perhaps this series will help jump start that effort, and provide some additional support to the people who have been trying hard to do so.
This week, the Lincoln Journal Star is running a multi-part special report on this area, entitled The Core. Deena Winter, the lead reporter on this series, has been getting a lot of data and information from us for the past few months as she prepared for this series, and she's been on a few ride alongs with the Southwest Team. The resulting special report is an eye-opener for many people who are pretty much oblivious to the kinds of things going on in their own city. Greater awareness is a good thing. We need help, and lots of it. But the police cannot bring this neighborhood back from the brink by themselves--it's going to take a much broader effort. Perhaps this series will help jump start that effort, and provide some additional support to the people who have been trying hard to do so.
There are thousands of people in Lincoln (and a lot of community leaders) who need to have their own bubble burst. That's one of the things I've been trying to do in this blog and at every single public speaking engagement I've been at for the past few years. Hopefully, the Journal Star's larger readership will have a more pronounced effect.
As an aside, the online version of The Core is the most interactive content I have yet to see on the Journal Star's website. The multi-media interviews, back stories, and interactive maps are impressive indeed. I think you're seeing a glimpse of the future of newspapers.Friday, January 25, 2008
More guns turn up
More guns have surfaced from the The October 1 burglary of Scheel's All Sports in Lincoln. I wrote about the circumstances of some of the recoveries previously, but the most recent three guns, which have been recovered in the past week, have yet to hit the news. So, here's the summary of all eight Scheel's guns that have turned up in the Phoenix area so far:
1. November 30, 2007: Gun one recovered, a .45 cal. Glock. Phoenix officers investigating a juvenile case found the gun laying on the ground, apparently dropped by someone in a small group that took off as the officers approached.
2. December 4, 2007: Gun two recovered, a 9mm Glock found by Phoenix police investigating the apparent suicide of a 26 year old man who used the stolen gun to shoot himself .
3. December 5, 2007: Guns three and four recovered, a Ruger .45 and a Ruger .40. Both guns were recovered by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office during a vehicle stop. Approximately 10 pounds of methamphetamine and the guns were found in the vehicle.
4. December 28, 2007: Gun five recovered, a Glock .357. Phoenix police investigating a chop shop found the gun in the possession of one of the occupants.
5. January 16, 2008: Guns six and seven recovered, two Springfield Armory .45s. These guns were recovered by Phoenix police after an armed carjacking. Officers located the two suspects, and found the guns inside the stolen vehicle.
6. January 20, 2008: Gun eight recovered, another .45 cal. Springfield. The gun was recovered when the Phoenix police rescued a kidnapping victim who was being held for ransom.
That's a pretty hefty string of crimes in the Phoenix area connected with our largest-ever Lincoln gun burglary: a suicide, a big meth bust, a chop shop investigation, an armed car jacking, and a brutal kidnapping--so far.
There are still 44 guns missing.
1. November 30, 2007: Gun one recovered, a .45 cal. Glock. Phoenix officers investigating a juvenile case found the gun laying on the ground, apparently dropped by someone in a small group that took off as the officers approached.
2. December 4, 2007: Gun two recovered, a 9mm Glock found by Phoenix police investigating the apparent suicide of a 26 year old man who used the stolen gun to shoot himself .
3. December 5, 2007: Guns three and four recovered, a Ruger .45 and a Ruger .40. Both guns were recovered by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office during a vehicle stop. Approximately 10 pounds of methamphetamine and the guns were found in the vehicle.
4. December 28, 2007: Gun five recovered, a Glock .357. Phoenix police investigating a chop shop found the gun in the possession of one of the occupants.
5. January 16, 2008: Guns six and seven recovered, two Springfield Armory .45s. These guns were recovered by Phoenix police after an armed carjacking. Officers located the two suspects, and found the guns inside the stolen vehicle.
6. January 20, 2008: Gun eight recovered, another .45 cal. Springfield. The gun was recovered when the Phoenix police rescued a kidnapping victim who was being held for ransom.
That's a pretty hefty string of crimes in the Phoenix area connected with our largest-ever Lincoln gun burglary: a suicide, a big meth bust, a chop shop investigation, an armed car jacking, and a brutal kidnapping--so far.
There are still 44 guns missing.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Prime time for youth crime
Yesterday, I was on a panel at the Governor's Summit on Extended Learning Opportunities at the Nebraska State Capitol. Governor Heineman and his wife, Salley Ganem, were in attendance. The First Lady was an elementary school principal in Fremont, Nebraska and if I recall correctly, continued in that job for quite some time after the election of her husband. They are obviously both quite interested in this topic, and were at the summit all day long.
My panel's role was to discuss the value of after school extended learning programs, such as Lincoln's Community Learning Centers. In preparation for my very brief presentation, I made a graph that I thought the attendees might find interesting. I took every police incident report (except missing persons) over the past 8 years: 2000 through 2007. I selected those cases with a status code of 41: cleared, juvenile. The graph shows the time of day of each of these cases; shoplifting, burglary, assault, drugs, robbery, vandalism, and so forth.
That spike is at 1500 hours (3:00 p.m.). The times are much different than adult cases, which are relatively level through the day, then peak between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m.. It's pretty clear from this why police chiefs and police officers are often interested in productive after school activities for kids. Over the years, lots of Lincoln police officers have invested their personal time in helping to ensure good activities for kids in Lincoln. There are many officers who have served as scout leaders, camp counselors, mentors, coaches, and more. Police officers are keenly aware of the difference a committed adult can make in the life of a child.
My panel's role was to discuss the value of after school extended learning programs, such as Lincoln's Community Learning Centers. In preparation for my very brief presentation, I made a graph that I thought the attendees might find interesting. I took every police incident report (except missing persons) over the past 8 years: 2000 through 2007. I selected those cases with a status code of 41: cleared, juvenile. The graph shows the time of day of each of these cases; shoplifting, burglary, assault, drugs, robbery, vandalism, and so forth.
That spike is at 1500 hours (3:00 p.m.). The times are much different than adult cases, which are relatively level through the day, then peak between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m.. It's pretty clear from this why police chiefs and police officers are often interested in productive after school activities for kids. Over the years, lots of Lincoln police officers have invested their personal time in helping to ensure good activities for kids in Lincoln. There are many officers who have served as scout leaders, camp counselors, mentors, coaches, and more. Police officers are keenly aware of the difference a committed adult can make in the life of a child.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Warrant focus areas
There's been a bit of a spirited discussion going on in the coments posted on the Chief's Corner this week centering around specialized Warrants Units, and the relative priority of such an operation. One thing everyone has agreed on, though, is that it seems to make sense that putting pressure on people with outstanding arrest warrants is a good thing.
Not all of these defendants are just forgetful speeders who missed a court date. Many are petty criminals who are committing misdemeanors with abandon. The 25 year old woman I discussed yesterday is a good example. Moreover, there is some overlap between the warrants we hold--Municipal Ordinance misdemeanors which tend to be fairly minor--and much more serious criminals. The burglars, drug dealers, robbers, and professional thieves are missing their court dates on dog-at-large, maintaining a disorderly house, and driving while suspended, too. They are represented in our warrant files, but they have other, more serious criminal patterns as well.
So, if we can't beat on ten or twelve thousand doors, what can we do? In late 2005, I asked our five Team captains (who command our major geographic areas) to give me a small area of their Team where the social problems and crime is most intense, and to make a special effort to assure that people with newly-issued warrants get a little police attention within those neighborhoods. They each did so, we named them warrant focus areas, and I created a threshold alert that runs on Mondays and emails its results automatically at 6:15 a.m.. It produces a map showing the last known address of everyone in that neighborhood with a fresh arrest warrant issued in the preceding seven days. Here's the map that went to Capt. Mike Woolman and Det. Sgt. Tim Kennett of the Southwest Team on Monday:
There were eleven freshly-minted arrest warrants in this area of about 3/4 of a square mile. By limiting both the area and the time, it's a workable number. Nobody's going to bust a gut knocking on a few doors a time or two during the week. The map isn't particularly important, but the .pdf report listing the details is, and the names are hyperlinks from the report into our records management system, to facilitate very quick research and a mug shot.
The addresses on warrants are notoriously outdated, which is why the report is only new warrants. Even those are usually outdated, but much more likely than the entire pool to be either good addresses or recent ones. I think that if the police come around to your former residence looking for you, talk to your ex-boyfriend, or your previous roommate, or even the neighbor you used to share a bowl with, that it gets back to the target quickly. I took a handful of warrants with me when I spent shifts with Officer Tim Abele and Officer Cass Briggs, and we knocked on a few doors. We didn't find a single one of the people we were looking for, but I have no doubt the word got back to a few of them.
If we manage to find and arrest a defendant, he or she is off the street for a few hours or maybe even a day or two during which the normal business is suspended. If we don't find the defendant, but he or she gets wind of the fact that the police are actively looking, he or she may lay low for a while. For a professional shoplifter, she might just cool it for the day. For the suspended driver, he might minimize his driving for a few days and stick to side streets. For the drunk driver, she might decide not to hit the bars this weekend, and just get plastered alone at home. Some of these defendants may actually try to take care of the warrant before the police come around again, and some of them will even remember next time.
If my theory is right, and the chronics lay low for varying periods of time, depending on their level of intellectual organization, this can't help put have a positive effect, small though it may be. If we can concentrate this effect on the areas that need it most, and if we can combine it with other activities that have positive impacts, we can help those areas avoid the tipping point. I really wish there would have been some way to build in an evaluation component to this strategy, but we had neither the money nor technical expertise to do so at the time, and you can't always wait for the results of the clinical trials before you start attacking the infection.
Not all of these defendants are just forgetful speeders who missed a court date. Many are petty criminals who are committing misdemeanors with abandon. The 25 year old woman I discussed yesterday is a good example. Moreover, there is some overlap between the warrants we hold--Municipal Ordinance misdemeanors which tend to be fairly minor--and much more serious criminals. The burglars, drug dealers, robbers, and professional thieves are missing their court dates on dog-at-large, maintaining a disorderly house, and driving while suspended, too. They are represented in our warrant files, but they have other, more serious criminal patterns as well.
So, if we can't beat on ten or twelve thousand doors, what can we do? In late 2005, I asked our five Team captains (who command our major geographic areas) to give me a small area of their Team where the social problems and crime is most intense, and to make a special effort to assure that people with newly-issued warrants get a little police attention within those neighborhoods. They each did so, we named them warrant focus areas, and I created a threshold alert that runs on Mondays and emails its results automatically at 6:15 a.m.. It produces a map showing the last known address of everyone in that neighborhood with a fresh arrest warrant issued in the preceding seven days. Here's the map that went to Capt. Mike Woolman and Det. Sgt. Tim Kennett of the Southwest Team on Monday:
There were eleven freshly-minted arrest warrants in this area of about 3/4 of a square mile. By limiting both the area and the time, it's a workable number. Nobody's going to bust a gut knocking on a few doors a time or two during the week. The map isn't particularly important, but the .pdf report listing the details is, and the names are hyperlinks from the report into our records management system, to facilitate very quick research and a mug shot.
The addresses on warrants are notoriously outdated, which is why the report is only new warrants. Even those are usually outdated, but much more likely than the entire pool to be either good addresses or recent ones. I think that if the police come around to your former residence looking for you, talk to your ex-boyfriend, or your previous roommate, or even the neighbor you used to share a bowl with, that it gets back to the target quickly. I took a handful of warrants with me when I spent shifts with Officer Tim Abele and Officer Cass Briggs, and we knocked on a few doors. We didn't find a single one of the people we were looking for, but I have no doubt the word got back to a few of them.
If we manage to find and arrest a defendant, he or she is off the street for a few hours or maybe even a day or two during which the normal business is suspended. If we don't find the defendant, but he or she gets wind of the fact that the police are actively looking, he or she may lay low for a while. For a professional shoplifter, she might just cool it for the day. For the suspended driver, he might minimize his driving for a few days and stick to side streets. For the drunk driver, she might decide not to hit the bars this weekend, and just get plastered alone at home. Some of these defendants may actually try to take care of the warrant before the police come around again, and some of them will even remember next time.
If my theory is right, and the chronics lay low for varying periods of time, depending on their level of intellectual organization, this can't help put have a positive effect, small though it may be. If we can concentrate this effect on the areas that need it most, and if we can combine it with other activities that have positive impacts, we can help those areas avoid the tipping point. I really wish there would have been some way to build in an evaluation component to this strategy, but we had neither the money nor technical expertise to do so at the time, and you can't always wait for the results of the clinical trials before you start attacking the infection.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The revolving door
There is a bit of background information relating to this post in my previous post, Most frequent arrest. After Clair Lindquist got me the number I was seeking (2,492 warrant arrests by the Lincoln police officers in 2007), he pointed out a particularly illustrative example to me. He had me look up a 25-year old Lincoln woman. Here's her record of being booked into the Lancaster County jail:
Basically, she is a chronic shoplifter, who boosts merchandise to support a drug habit. She's regularly getting busted, and normally is issued a citation and released, because she's a local resident and the offenses are misdemeanors. This started to change about a year ago. She missed her first court date back in 2006 and a warrant was issued. In February of 2007, she was stopped for a traffic violation, the officer discovered the warrant, and booked her into jail. She posted bond on the warrant and was released. This process occurred three times in all, while in the meantime many more court dates were missed, resulting in many more warrants. The missed court dates also resulted in seven additional charge of Failure to Appear in Court. Each of these were dismissed, however, in what appears to be a plea agreement that finally netted her a 30 day jail sentence.
She's been playing quite a game. The court apparently figured this out by the middle of December, and she has been esconced in the Lancaster County Jail since that time. She still has a pair of additional shoplifting charges pending, from November 30 and December 6, 2007. She's scheduled to be in court on January 289and January 30 on those two cases. I hope she's still in jail on those dates, because the chances of her actually showing up are slimt to none otherwise.
Her record of failing to appear in court will now pretty much guarantee that she will be jailed whenever she's caught shoplifting or driving on a suspended license. She'll bond out, miss her court date, a warrant will issue, she'll get pulled over again, and on and on and on. Imagine the workload this revolving door process is causing for police, prosecutors, jail, and courts.
Basically, she is a chronic shoplifter, who boosts merchandise to support a drug habit. She's regularly getting busted, and normally is issued a citation and released, because she's a local resident and the offenses are misdemeanors. This started to change about a year ago. She missed her first court date back in 2006 and a warrant was issued. In February of 2007, she was stopped for a traffic violation, the officer discovered the warrant, and booked her into jail. She posted bond on the warrant and was released. This process occurred three times in all, while in the meantime many more court dates were missed, resulting in many more warrants. The missed court dates also resulted in seven additional charge of Failure to Appear in Court. Each of these were dismissed, however, in what appears to be a plea agreement that finally netted her a 30 day jail sentence.
She's been playing quite a game. The court apparently figured this out by the middle of December, and she has been esconced in the Lancaster County Jail since that time. She still has a pair of additional shoplifting charges pending, from November 30 and December 6, 2007. She's scheduled to be in court on January 289and January 30 on those two cases. I hope she's still in jail on those dates, because the chances of her actually showing up are slimt to none otherwise.
Her record of failing to appear in court will now pretty much guarantee that she will be jailed whenever she's caught shoplifting or driving on a suspended license. She'll bond out, miss her court date, a warrant will issue, she'll get pulled over again, and on and on and on. Imagine the workload this revolving door process is causing for police, prosecutors, jail, and courts.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Most frequent arrest
Every year in our annual report, we include a short list of some of the most common arrest charges by Lincoln police officers. I haven't got all the 2007 numbers yet, but here's the 2006 list:
Assault 2,057
Minor in possession of alcohol 2,038
Consuming alcohol in public 1,852
Disturbing the peace 1,472
Possession of marijuana 1,379
Trespassing 1,089
Theft 1,088
The top spot, however, is missing--it's not really assault. I started thinking about this Friday, and Clair Lindquist, the builder and manager of our information systems, had the number in my hands within minutes: the leading cause of arrest is the existence of an outstanding arrest warrant. There were 2,492 warrant arrest last year, considerably more than the next closest contender. Moreover, whereas the great majority of the 27,000 or so misdemeanor arrests are handled with a citation and release, all of the people arrested on warrants actually end up in jail.
There are lots of arrest warrants. Those issued on underlying charges of State Statute violations (felonies and a few misdeanors like marijuans possesion) go to the county sheriff. Those issues on underlying charges of City Ordinance violations (most of the misdemeanor and traffic violations) come to the police department. Between the two agencies, we've got over 10,000 on file. Many are for people who are long gone from Lincoln, and unlikely to be seen again, but there are thousands of people moping around Lincoln every day who are wanted on warrants. We've posted them all online for years, and get leads and calls regularly. Be careful who you offend when a warrant is out for your arrest.
While the felons are aggressively pursued by the sheriff's fugitive task force, there just aren't enough resources to ferret out the misdemeants with zeal. Because of the small size of the police force, our small warrants unit was phased out four chiefs ago in the late 1970's. As a result most of these misdemeanor warrant arrests occur when the defendent gets contacted for something else: pulled over for a traffic violation, picked up for a new shoplifting offense, involved in a traffic crash, and so forth. The officer checks the name, discovers the outstanding arrest warrant, and it's off to the slammer.
There are many ways to get an arrest warrant, but the most common ones, probably accounting for more than 90% of the total, are to miss a court date or fail to pay a fine. When someone is booked into jail on an arrest warrant, they are often able to bond out. A new court date is set, they post a few bucks as surety (either $50 or $100 in most cases), and it's off to the boats.
There will be more to this story later.
Assault 2,057
Minor in possession of alcohol 2,038
Consuming alcohol in public 1,852
Disturbing the peace 1,472
Possession of marijuana 1,379
Trespassing 1,089
Theft 1,088
The top spot, however, is missing--it's not really assault. I started thinking about this Friday, and Clair Lindquist, the builder and manager of our information systems, had the number in my hands within minutes: the leading cause of arrest is the existence of an outstanding arrest warrant. There were 2,492 warrant arrest last year, considerably more than the next closest contender. Moreover, whereas the great majority of the 27,000 or so misdemeanor arrests are handled with a citation and release, all of the people arrested on warrants actually end up in jail.
There are lots of arrest warrants. Those issued on underlying charges of State Statute violations (felonies and a few misdeanors like marijuans possesion) go to the county sheriff. Those issues on underlying charges of City Ordinance violations (most of the misdemeanor and traffic violations) come to the police department. Between the two agencies, we've got over 10,000 on file. Many are for people who are long gone from Lincoln, and unlikely to be seen again, but there are thousands of people moping around Lincoln every day who are wanted on warrants. We've posted them all online for years, and get leads and calls regularly. Be careful who you offend when a warrant is out for your arrest.
While the felons are aggressively pursued by the sheriff's fugitive task force, there just aren't enough resources to ferret out the misdemeants with zeal. Because of the small size of the police force, our small warrants unit was phased out four chiefs ago in the late 1970's. As a result most of these misdemeanor warrant arrests occur when the defendent gets contacted for something else: pulled over for a traffic violation, picked up for a new shoplifting offense, involved in a traffic crash, and so forth. The officer checks the name, discovers the outstanding arrest warrant, and it's off to the slammer.
There are many ways to get an arrest warrant, but the most common ones, probably accounting for more than 90% of the total, are to miss a court date or fail to pay a fine. When someone is booked into jail on an arrest warrant, they are often able to bond out. A new court date is set, they post a few bucks as surety (either $50 or $100 in most cases), and it's off to the boats.
There will be more to this story later.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Perplexing trend
Last night was our monthly ADUCAT meeting, and among other things we were discussing a recent spate of residential burglaries at apartment complexes. We got an update on the status of a current investigative effort that is quite promising, and on the prevention strategies that have been underway. This isn't the first time that residential burglaries have been on our agenda, and we've had some creative efforts concerning these crimes in the past several months that I've reported on previously in the Chief's Corner. The current pattern has been a little different, in that it has included a larger number of door-kicks: cases in which brute force is applied to a regular exterior door, breaking the door jamb away from the lock bolt.
Tuesday night, I was at a meeting at one of our nicer new apartment communities, the Links at Lincoln, where about 100 residents had gathered to talk about an outbreak of burglaries plaguing their 612 units. In advance of the meeting, the management staff at the complex had spoken to me by telephone, and also been quoted in the local press in a way that was just slightly testy--as if we hadn't been doing anything, when in fact we have worked hard on this trend and cleared half the cases.
I pointed out that of the 36 residential burglaries there since January 1, 2007, eighteen appear to be the work of a single suspect who was arrested several weeks ago: an employee of a subcontractor who managed to get his hands on the master key. The remaining 18, though incredibly annoying and frightening to their victims, probably would not be nearly as alarming compared to any other similar-sized complex in Lincoln over the course of a little more than a year. It's still too many, though, and we had a great discussion in the clubhouse Tuesday about what needs to be done to drive that number down. The meeting went really well, and it was about the largest turnout I can recall in my career for anything of this sort--a very good sign.
Anticipating finger-pointing that failed to materialize, I had taken along data concerning the 20 year trend in residential burglary and maps depicting all the hotspots for apartment burglaries (the Links is hardly alone). I never used any of this, but the 20-year trend is interesting nonetheless (click to enlarge).
The burglary rate has fallen precipitously since 1987. I understand why commercial burglaries are down (better and more alarms and security systems), but this just doesn't seem to apply to residential burglaries. Residential security systems are still rare in our city. The decrease is pretty significant--about a 30% reduction in the burglary rate. The actual number of residential burglaries has dropped slightly since 1987, despite the addition of around 54,000 residents. This is different than other crimes, all of which have increased to varying degrees. I like it, I just don't fully understand it.
Tuesday night, I was at a meeting at one of our nicer new apartment communities, the Links at Lincoln, where about 100 residents had gathered to talk about an outbreak of burglaries plaguing their 612 units. In advance of the meeting, the management staff at the complex had spoken to me by telephone, and also been quoted in the local press in a way that was just slightly testy--as if we hadn't been doing anything, when in fact we have worked hard on this trend and cleared half the cases.
I pointed out that of the 36 residential burglaries there since January 1, 2007, eighteen appear to be the work of a single suspect who was arrested several weeks ago: an employee of a subcontractor who managed to get his hands on the master key. The remaining 18, though incredibly annoying and frightening to their victims, probably would not be nearly as alarming compared to any other similar-sized complex in Lincoln over the course of a little more than a year. It's still too many, though, and we had a great discussion in the clubhouse Tuesday about what needs to be done to drive that number down. The meeting went really well, and it was about the largest turnout I can recall in my career for anything of this sort--a very good sign.
Anticipating finger-pointing that failed to materialize, I had taken along data concerning the 20 year trend in residential burglary and maps depicting all the hotspots for apartment burglaries (the Links is hardly alone). I never used any of this, but the 20-year trend is interesting nonetheless (click to enlarge).
The burglary rate has fallen precipitously since 1987. I understand why commercial burglaries are down (better and more alarms and security systems), but this just doesn't seem to apply to residential burglaries. Residential security systems are still rare in our city. The decrease is pretty significant--about a 30% reduction in the burglary rate. The actual number of residential burglaries has dropped slightly since 1987, despite the addition of around 54,000 residents. This is different than other crimes, all of which have increased to varying degrees. I like it, I just don't fully understand it.
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