The numbers are in for the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and Mount Laurel is making progress fighting crime.
The report, created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was issued last week.
Mount Laurel Police Chief Dennis Cribben said the crime index has lowered in the last three years, for both violent and nonviolent crimes. He projects that 2011 will show a slightly higher violent and nonviolent crime number, with the increase due to more larceny and thefts.
He also said the national trend for the last three years is of crime dropping.
“Historically, crime goes up and down and we can’t always predict the reasons,” Cribben said, adding that, at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, Mount Laurel increased patrols by officers.
“I think the physical presence of the officers there being a deterrent contributed to lowering of crime during those years,” he said.
However, the last four years the department has not been able to replace officers who retire. They are down to 57 full-time regular police officers, down from 61 in 2010.
“We, as well as virtually every police department in New Jersey have been downsizing the last couple of years,” Cribben said. “I can’t predict how that’s going to affect crime.”
He said the increased presence acts as a deterrent, as a way of capturing criminals, and prevents those caught from committing more crimes.
“I think Mount Laurel is a very safe community,” Cribben said. He grew up in Mount Laurel and his parents still live in the township. “I’m very comfortable with the current climate in Mount Laurel.”
He said he is looking to maximize efficiencies, in part by taking part in a proactive policing strategy called Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS).
The approach is a policing strategy developed through a collaborative effort between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the National Institute of Justice.
Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety uses both crime and traffic crash data to identify and map problem areas, or locations where crime and crashes are found to overlap. Within these “hot spots,” community partners can provide additional key information about the neighborhoods.
“Two years ago we probably wouldn’t have been forced to look at working outside the box,” Cribben said. “The goal is to deter crime [and] change people’s driving habits to reduce traffic accidents.”
The three hot spots (all hot spots have to have high crime and traffic problems) include the following:
Route 73 and Fellowship Road area, including East Gate Square shopping center, because of all the thefts, shoplifting, and credit card fraud in retail centers; Route 38 and Marter Avenue because of lots of traffic accidents and being adjacent to Centerton Square shopping center; and Route 38 from Hartford Road to Ark Road — which includes three intersections — Route 38 and Hartford, Route 38 and Larchmont Road, Route 38 and Ark Road.
Cribben said the last one sees lots of accidents and “disproportionate” amount of property crime there.
“Our goal is to reduce in the next year traffic accidents and crime by 15 percent in these three hot spots,” he said.
Results from the UCR are as follows:
The population of Mount Laurel was 39,696 in 2010 and 39,071.
The number of violent crimes was 36 in 2010 and 34 in 2009.
The incidents of forcible rape were five in 2010 and nine in 2009.
Robbery went from 13 cases in 2009 to 12 in 2010.
The aggravated assault numbers went from 12 in 2009 to 19 in 2010.
Incidents of property crime were 642 in 2010 and 729 in 2009.
The number of burglaries dropped from 109 in 2009 to 88 in 2010.
The amount of larceny-thefts also dropped from 600 in 2009 to 532 in 2010.
The number of motor vehicle thefts went from 20 in 2009 to 22 in 2010.
Cases of arson went from two in 2009 to one in 2010.
There were no murders in Mount Laurel in 2009 and 2010.
The Uniform Crime Reporting Program was conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet a need for reliable, uniform crime statistics for the nation. In 1930, the FBI was tasked with collecting, publishing, and archiving those statistics.
