Police chief: Homewood crime rates ‘lowest I’ve ever seen’

In the early 2000s, the city of Homewood had more than 300 burglaries and more than 100 robberies in a year. When Police Chief Tim Ross stepped into his role in January 2016, crime rates were slightly lower, but the chief nonetheless began searching for ways to further reduce crime.

Now Ross is seeing Homewood’s lowest crime rates in the entire 33 years he’s been at the department.

Instances of robbery were slashed in half from 24 in 2019 to 12 in 2020. When Ross became chief, there had been 51 robberies the year before. This means that robberies have decreased by more than 76% under Ross’ leadership.

Vehicle theft also saw a sharp decline last year compared to 2019. There were 50 vehicle thefts in 2020, which is a 32% decrease compared to the 74 vehicle thefts that occurred in 2019. Crimes in this category have decreased by more than half since 2015.

Although less statistically significant than the previous categories, instances of burglary and the unauthorized breaking and entering of vehicles also decreased in 2020 compared to 2019. There were 12 fewer instances of burglary and six fewer instances of auto burglary in 2020 than the previous year.

There were no homicides in 2020, compared to one homicide in 2019. There have been three total homicides in the city since 2015.

Crime in these five categories decreased by approximately 18% in 2020 compared to 2019 and by almost 63% since 2015.

“During my 33-year career, these are some of the lowest crime figures that I’ve ever seen at the Homewood Police Department,” Ross said. “I am very proud because I know Homewood’s history, and I know where we were in terms of crime in the city. To get to where we are now is better than anything I ever could have imagined when I took over as chief in 2016.”

While presenting the state-of-the-city address Jan. 19, Homewood Mayor Patrick McClusky commended the department on the city’s significant decrease in crime.

“These are record lows in these categories, and they have been getting consistently lower year over year,” he said. “The men and women of the Homewood Police Department work very hard to keep our citizens and businesses safe day in and day out, and I’m so proud to see these continued declines in these categories.”

Ross attributes the decrease in crime to the officers on the street and said their dedication to duty is unmatched. This reduction in crime also comes during “unprecedented times,” Ross said, as officers had to continue meeting their goals amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It presented a lot of challenges for us, not only for their own safety, but also enforcing different mandates put out by the state and the federal government concerning guidelines, mask-wearing and things like that,” Ross said. “It’s a testament to our whole Police Department — everyone who works here and contributes to our mission. It’s a testament to their professionalism and dedication that they could continue to do their job in the way they did it last year, even facing these new challenges and dangers.”

Another thing that helped police officers in 2020 compared to previous years was moving into the new police headquarters building on Valley Avenue, which is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and amenities. Having a presence in West Homewood could have also deterred crime specifically in that area, Ross said.

Looking to the future, Ross said the department will continue to strive for ways to further decrease crime.

“We’re never comfortable to have any amount of crime,” he said. “We’ve set new goals to try to reduce things even further, and that’s what we’ll always try to do.”

Every officer in uniform in the department will soon be equipped with body cameras. Although this probably won’t have an effect on the reduction of crime, Ross said, it will help with transparency in the department.

“That’s another thing we always strive for — to be more transparent with the community we serve,” he said. “We’ve just purchased that equipment, and we’re working on policies and training, and we’ll implement that technology in 2021 very soon.”