2018 Homewood crime stats stay mostly steady

The Homewood Police Department’s incident rates for most major crimes stayed generally stable from 2017-18, statistics provided by the department show.

These statistics showed a slight uptick in burglary cases (126 incidents in 2018, compared to 110 in 2017) and smaller increases in the occurrence of robberies, unlawful breaking and entering of a vehicle (UBEV) and vehicle theft.

Overall thefts decreased from 882 cases in 2017 to 787 in 2018. Sex crimes in Homewood also decreased from 19 incidents to 15. There was one homicide in the city last year.

Chief Tim Ross said he measures the department’s statistics against 2015, the year before he assumed his role. From 2015-18, annual statistics for burglary, UBEV and theft have decreased by 100 or more incidents per year, and robberies have also become less frequent.

Vehicle thefts have increased from 106 in 2015 to 119 in 2018, and sex crimes peaked in 2016 before decreasing again, so that 2015 (13 incidents) and 2018 (15 incidents) were nearly identical.

Ross said the total number of criminal incidents in the city has decreased by about 30 percent since 2015, with a 42 percent decrease in burglaries.

“We’re happy with how we’ve been able to maintain an overall decrease,” Ross said.

He attributed the downward trend to an “increase in officer presence on the streets” by keeping the department as close to fully staffed as possible and adding new positions and police vehicles this budget year. Homewood Police Department currently has 82 sworn officers.

Ross said he will continue to seek new officers and equipment in the future and find ways to maintain current crime levels or further decrease them.

Those efforts include the purchase of a mobile watchtower this year, which can be placed in potential high crime areas to record activity and be monitored either by an officer in the tower or remotely. The department plans to expand its use of automatic license plate readers, which Sgt. John Carr said have been productive in making arrests and recovering stolen vehicles.

Ross said the department saw increased arrests by 33 percent in 2018, partly because of the two automatic readers in use.

As vehicle break-ins continue to be one of the most frequent Homewood crimes, Ross said the department continues to urge residents to lock their vehicles and keep valuables out of sight. The police use some video camera monitoring in areas with frequent break-ins, and Ross said they may expand the use of these cameras, which can be mounted on light poles and street signs, in the future.

In other news, the Homewood Police Department is now anticipating an October move into its new facility under construction on Bagby Drive. Ross said the department is still searching for the right location for an “east precinct” to keep a presence in the downtown area.