Sean C. Morgan
The serious crime rate in Sweet Home increased along Albany, Lebanon and other cities in Oregon in 2003.
A year ago, Police Chief Bob Burford said he expected the rate would increase for 2003, and he anticipates the crime rate rising higher still in 2004.
The FBI recently released its Uniform Crime Reports for 2003.
Serious crimes increased from 53.2 per 1,000 population to 71.2 from 2002 to 2003. By comparison, Albany’s serious crime rate increased from 66.19 to 96.6. Lebanon’s rate increased from 69 to 94.7.
Compared to similar populations, between 7,000 and 10,000, Monmouth decreased from 39.3 to 35.5. Lincoln City increased from 94.1 to 122.5. Newport increased from 71.8 to 83.6. Stayton decreased from 76.7 to 69.7.
Cottage Grove had a higher crime rate in 2002 but decreased to 57.7 in 2003. Silverton was higher than Sweet Home in 2002 also but decreased to 52.5 in 2003.
Compared to larger cities, Portland’s rate increased from 79.6 to 85. Salem had a rate of 84.8 in 2003. Springfield had a rate of 81.1. New York’s rate decreased from 31 to 29.2 from 2002 to 2003.
The overall national rate was 40.634, down from 41.25.
The FBI is dividing what used to be known as Part I crimes into violent and property crimes. The crimes included in these statistics include the violent crimes murder, negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault and the property crimes burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
Sweet Home had 39 violent crimes and 555 property crimes in 2003 for a total of 594 with a population of 8,233.
Like last year, “my gut feeling is it’s going to be worse again this year,” Chief Burford said. That’s based on the sheer number of calls police are receiving this year, “the number of serious assaults we’re responding to and the lack of police officers to adequately follow up on some of those crimes that are on the minor end of the scale.
“Again, it goes back to what I’ve said about the 90 to 95 percent of crime linking back to drugs and alcohol. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve had two serious assaults, one with a knife, one with a gun.”
One linked directly to drugs and alcohol. The suspect in the second has had multiple contacts with police in connection with drugs, and the weapon had been exchanged for methamphetamines.
“You combine that with a downturn in the economy, which historically, always seems to correspond with a rise in the crime rate; add in the budget cutbacks affecting law enforcement; and the number of officers available to respond and provide preemptive patrols, and this sort of statistic becomes inevitable,” Chief Burford said.
The city’s budget committee and council transferred funding from the general fund to avoid serious cuts in law enforcement for 2004-05; but to conserve funds, Chief Burford has been holding off hiring a police officer to fill a vacant position.
He has held off to make sure the department gets a good candidate and also to “be confident the city’s in a position where I can look him or her in the eyes and be able to offer him or her a job without fear of being laid off six months down the road,” Chief Burford said. “It’s too much to expect a good candidate to quit a good job in the private sector without some reasonable assurance of job security.”