While crime has decreased in Jamestown over the past year, violent crimes - murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault - increased 12.2 percent in 2011.
According to Jamestown Police Department officials, the department has seen an overall decrease in the number of index crimes in the city from 2010 to 2011. Index crimes are the eight crimes the FBI combines to produce its annual crime index and includes willful homicide, forcible rape, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, larceny over $50, motor vehicle theft and arson.
The total number of index crimes fell from 1,462 in 2010 to 1,325 in 2011, a 9.4 percent decrease. Of that total, the violent crimes: murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault rose from 181 crimes reported in 2010 to 203 in 2011, with a 12.2 percent increase. The increase in violent crime is mainly seen in the number of robberies, which went from 35 reported crimes in 2010 to 36 in 2011, a 2.9 percent increase, and aggravated assault, which increased from 122 in 2010 to 145 in 2011, an 18.9 percent increase.
Capt. Todd Isaacson said the increase in robberies can be associated with one person who allegedly committed a spree of robberies between Nov. 21 and Dec. 4.
"We did notice a rise in robbery, but we can attribute quite a bit of that to William Buckley, who went on his robbery spree here, hitting convenience stores in December, so there was an issue there," he said.
Murder remained steady with none reported in either 2010 or 2011, and rape decreased by 8.3 percent, with 24 reported in 2010 and 22 in 2011.
Property crimes fell overall, however, with 1,281 reported in 2010 to 1,122 in 2011, a 12.4 percent decrease.
Burglary decreased by 2 percent, with 342 reported in 2010 and 335 in 2011.
Larceny and motor vehicle theft were the two most decreased crimes between the years. Reported larcenies dropped 15.5 percent, with 895 reported in 2010 to 756 in 2011. Reported motor vehicle theft dropped 29.5 percent, with 44 in 2010 and 31 in 2011.
The decreases are attributed to many services the police department offers, Isaacson said, including Operation Impact. The city of Jamestown is an Operation Impact community, which means it receives federal and state funding to help police agencies in areas deemed as having high crime rates.
He said that the department's Operation Impact strategy targets burglaries and robberies, but these are underlying problems of a bigger concern.
"With Operation Impact, it is targeted to burglaries and robberies, but what we are finding, and especially in these outlying communities, the common nexus with all these crimes is narcotics, the drug trade," Isaacson said. "So it is not just effecting one jurisdiction over the other. we all have a common foe and that is narcotics, which is driving the crimes. The idea is targeting those who have the propensity to commit these crimes. It coincides with the philosophy of five percent of the population committing 95 percent of the crimes, and that is what we target when we do all of our initiatives. With Operation Impact, that is what is driving our resources. We are being tasked as outside agencies around the country are, with doing more with less. And how do we do that? Well, we do that through intelligence led policing. We are driven by the data and using our resources based on statistical research as well as crime analysis."
Isaacson said having intelligence-led policing allows officers to dispatch resources to certain areas to combat such crimes.
"When we have this information in the databases to look at and analyze the crime and crime trends, it allows managers and the chief to more appropriately assign resources and personnel to address those trends," he said. "We work in concert with outside agencies from Parole and Probation, the New York State Police, New York State Liquor Authority, the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office, and we all work in concert to address this common theme."