JAMESTOWN – Overall crime is on the downturn in the city of Jamestown. However, the reported crime rate doesn’t necessarily reflect the total amount of illegal activity – including drug trafficking – happening in the city. In addition, while the reported overall crime rate is on the downturn, the actual number of violent crimes is on the rise.
According to the 2015 Unified Crime Report (UCR) recently filed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the total number of crimes investigated by the JPD within the city of Jamestown in 2015 was 1,235. That’s 17 percent lower than the total for 2014, when the total number of crimes reported was 1489.
- VIEW UCR DATA FOR 2015 AND 2014
- NY FIREARM CRIME AND RELATED ACTIVITY FOR 2015
- 2015 JPD CALL FOR SERVICE REPORT
The statistics take into account the two categories of crime, which are those deemed “violent” (such as homicide, sexual assault, robbery, and assault) and those considered “property crime” (such as burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft). Other illegal activity that affects quality of life, such as drug-related crimes and vandalism, doesn’t get included in the report.
Much of the decrease in crime listed in the UCR summary comes by way of Property Crime, where 1,010 incidents were reported in 2015, down 21.5 percent from the previous year (1287). The most common property crime incidents for 2015 were larceny (662) followed by burglary (297), and motor vehicle theft (51).
One other type of property crime is arson, which was not included in the UCR summary. According to police chief Harry Snellings, there were 31 arsons committed in the city in 2015, up more than 50 percent from the 20 that took place in 2014.
The busiest time of the year for crime was in August with 141 reported crimes taking place in the city, followed by July and November, which each saw 119 crimes. June comes next with 116 crimes, followed by December with 113 crimes.
VIOLENT CRIME ON THE RISE
While property crime saw a decrease in 2015, the same can’t be said for violent crimes. According to the report, there were 225 violent crimes investigated during 2015, which is an 11 percent increase over the previous year (202). The number was also significantly higher than the five-year average of 187, which covers the time period between 2010 and 2014.
The most common violent crime reported by police in 2015 was aggravated assault (139), followed by robbery (55), then sexual assault (29) and homicide (2).
The report states that 10.7 percent of all violent crimes reported in the city were fire-arm related, which was actually slightly lower than the rate for 2014 when it was 12.6 percent. The decrease follows the state-wide trend, with firearm-related violent crimes down 6 percent in 2015.
And of the 225 violent crimes reported, only three were shooting incidents involving injury, with none of the victims dying as a result.
During 2015, Jamestown police also recovered 31 guns involved with crime. That’s a sharp increase from 2014, when just 14 guns were recovered.
HERON, METH ACTIVITY CLIMBS IN JAMESTOWN
As noted earlier, drug-related crimes are not tracked by the UCR report. But city police do keep track of drug activity in Jamestown, primarily through tracking the number of drug-related search warrants executed, along with the amount of illegal drugs confiscated through the search warrant process.
In 2015 there were 86 search warrants issued in connection to drug investigations in Jamestown. That’s 13 percent more than what was issued in 2014 (76) and 86 percent more than what was issued in 2012 (47).
In 2015, police confiscated 883.5 grams of heroin, which is 72 percent higher than the 511 grams collected in 2014. To get an idea of how significant of an increase there’s been in heroin trafficking in the city during the past couple of years, only 82.6 grams was confiscated by law enforcement in 2013, and just 11.9 grams was confiscated in 2012.
A similar increase was seen in methamphetamine confiscations. In 2015, police confiscated 32.66 oz of meth. That’s nearly four times as much as the 8 oz confiscated in 2014. In 2013, 4 oz was collected and in 2012, only half an ounce of the drug was collected by police.
Other illegal drugs seized by police in 2015 included:
- 32.8 oz of cocaine/crack cocaine (15.63 oz in 2014, 13.76 oz in 2013, 19.5 oz in 2012);
- 18 lbs of marijuana (7.5 lbs in 2014, 1.2 lbs in 2013, 31 lbs in 2012).
The amount of asset forfeiture, or cash, collected during the drug raids was $61,143 in 2015. It was $86,396 in 2014.
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