By: Vickie Berkow
Good news for neighborhood watch volunteers in Peoria – crime has generally decreased in the area in recent years.
According to the monthly crime and statistics report released by the Peoria Police Department, the total number of crimes dropped by 12 percent from 2012 to 2013. All eight categories saw decreases in crimes committed, except for murders, which increased from 10 to 16 total between the two years.
Crime has decreased majorly in Peoria since the turn of the century – of the nearly 10,500 total crimes committed in 2000, this past year saw more than half of that number erased.
Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard said he thinks crime is a long-term downward trend.
“Some of [Peoria’s crime decrease] is local and due to our local response to crime, and some of it is regional, nation and environmental,” he said. “Focusing on the local, I believe we as a community, and we as a law enforcement entity, have responded aggressively to crime and disorder.”
Some new technologies and initiatives have helped the police department reduce crime in recent years, Settingsgaard said, like Shotspotter, a system that tells police where gunfire originates. He said the PPD has since discovered that 80 percent of gunfire is never called in by the public.
Other initiatives include a fingerprint identification system, which will allow the PPD to bypass the State Crime Lab, and a crime mapping system.
Another strategy, the Don’t Shoot Peoria campaign, concentrates on combatting gun crimes.
The campaign focuses on the city’s most violent gangs, and targets an entire gang for a murder committed by one member. That “worst” gang is used as a warning to others. Settingsgaard said the PPD then offers help to any gang members who want out.
“It is very early in the game, but I believe in the core of my being that Don’t Shoot is having a serious impact on gun crimes,” Settingsgaard said.
Using the crime data from 2013, theft made up the bulk of crimes committed at nearly 60 percent. But thefts had decreased by 8 percent from 2012 to 2013.
Settingsgaard said he is not concerned that almost three out of five crimes in Peoria is theft-related.
“That is very typical. I wish the percentage were higher since it is the least serious [crime],” he said. “I am very pleased to say that theft has been on a very strong decline going back many years.”
One new initiative the PPD implemented is a secondhand dealers ordinance, where pawn shops and secondhand dealers must photograph, document and report online all property that comes in for sale. Settingsgaard said this makes it more difficult to fence items stolen in thefts, robberies and burglaries.
It’s unclear if 2014 will stay on the dwindling theft trend – there were more thefts committed in January than the same month of last year, but this February had fewer instances.
The second largest portion of crimes was burglary, which was about one in five of the total crimes, and aggravated assault/battery made up 9 percent.
Murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery, motor vehicle theft and arson produced low amounts of the total crimes in 2013, with five percent or less each.