JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown saw an increase in violent crimes for 2018, up by 15.5% over the previous year.
That’s according to the Jamestown Office of Public Safety’s 2018 Annual Report, now available at the city website. The report contains data from both the Jamestown Police Department and Jamestown Fire Department.
In the opening message, Public Safety Director/Police Chief Harry Snellings said that the Part I Index Total Crime Rate was down 3.96% compared to 2017, and Property crimes were down 7.9% compared to 2017. However, violent crime incidents rose by 15.46%.
The crime index, developed by the FBI, is composed of selected offenses used to gauge fluctuations in the overall volume and rate of crime reported to police. The offenses included are the violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, in addition to the property crimes of burglary, larceny, and auto theft.
In the violent crime category for Jamestown, both Rape and Aggravated Assault saw significant increase. The rape incidents went up from 10 in 2017 to 30 (200%) in 2018 and the aggravated assaults up from 138 in 2017 to 150 in 2018 (8.7%).
Among the other key findings in the report, the Jamestown Police Department responded to 36,430 calls for service last year. This was an increase of about 400 from the previous year.
The report also stated that property crimes in 2017 and 2018 were down nearly 25% compared to the previous five years, calling it a significant change in the number of property crimes, not likely to be the result of chance fluctuations in criminal activity.
As for drug offenses, those arrests are tracked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, so the specific number of cases the city police were involved in for last year was not provided. However, the report did indicate the amount of drugs confiscated last year, with all major categories – including heroin and methamphetamine – seeing a decline from the previous year.
“A large-scale drug conspiracy that brought methamphetamine originating from Mexico into Jamestown for distribution over the last several years ended in August,” Snellings noted in the report. “‘Operation Meltdown’ resulted in the indictments and arrest of eight individuals and the seizure of more than seven pounds of methamphetamine. The Jamestown Metro Drug Task Force also seized a record number of illegal firearms throughout the year.”
A link to the full 2018 Annual Police Report can be found online at the city website.
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