Sean C. Morgan
The crime rate in Sweet Home decreased about 6.7 percent from 2001 to 2002, according to the recently released FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2002.
Serious crimes decreased from 57.01 per 1,000 population to 53.2. Total, serious crimes were down from 461 to 439. Serious crimes include such crimes as murder, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, robbery, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
Sweet Home had the lowest crime rate among Linn County cities with police departments. Albany had a crime rate of 66.19, down from 70.02. Lebanon’s rate was down to 69.02 from 83.98.
Among similarly sized cities in Oregon, Sweet Home ranked among the lowest. In cities with populations between 7,000 and 10,000, Cornelius, at 44.89, and Monmouth, at 39.28, were lower. The highest rates were in Lincoln City at 94.12, Stayton at 76.68 and Newport at 71.76. Florence, Silverton and Cottage Grove all had higher rates than Sweet Home.
Portland’s rate was down to 79.56 from 80.4. The national rate for cities under 10,000 population was 41.78. For all cities nationwide, the rate was 50.47. New York City had a rate of 31.
Overall the national crime rate increased by less than one-tenth of a percent while Oregon had a 2.1 percent decrease.
Among the most common crimes measured, theft was down to 296 from 3303 in Sweet Home but remained up from 279 in 2000. Burglaries were down to 73 from 74 and down from 81 in 2000. Sweet Home had no murders, four rapes, no robberies, 43 aggravated assaults, 23 motor vehicle thefts and three arsons.
“We’re not satisfied with being the lowest crime rate in Linn County,” Police Chief Bob Burford said. “We can still do better. I’d like to see us get below 50. Within the next couple of years, I think that’s a realistic goal.”
At the same time, figures for 2003 may be up “based strictly on gut feeling,” Chief Burford said. “I don’t have any data to back this up.”
At the beginning of the year, Sweet Home had a few a “serial car thieves,” Chief Burford said. “Arrests were made. They’re now guests of the state, but for a period of time, they caused our auto theft rate to skyrocket.”
In the first six months of the year, Sweet Home had 32 motor vehicle thefts, compared to 24 all last year.
“Add on top of that, right now, we’re on pace to surpass the number of calls we experienced during 2000, which was an anomaly year, so the demands on our services are up significantly in 2003,” Chief Burford said.