Violent crime falls 13.7 percent in Lancaster city
Mayor credits police, cameras

Violent crime in Lancaster city fell dramatically in 2009, after spiking midway through the decade, and minor offenses, including burglaries and thefts, dropped to their lowest level in modern history, according to FBI data.

The number of murders, rapes, robberies and serious assaults fell 13.7 percent from 2008 to their lowest level in four years, the FBI's Uniform Crime Report shows.

In addition, the number of property crimes — burglaries, major thefts and stolen cars — dropped by 7.1 percent over the previous year, according to city police data reported to the FBI.

The steep decreases in Lancaster, home to 56,000 people, far outpaced the national average. Violent crimes fell by 5.3 across the country and property crimes dipped by 4.6 percent, according to the FBI.
They also eclipsed decreases seen in some of the city's suburbs. Violent crime fell slightly, for example, in Lancaster Township, stayed flat in Manheim Township and increased in East Hempfield, East Lampeter, West Lampeter and Manor townships, the FBI reported.

Property crime, however, decreased dramatically in Manheim, Manor and East Hempfield townships but jumped in East Lampeter and Lancaster townships.

Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray said the data reflect the city's proactive policing efforts, effectiveness of surveillance cameras and crackdowns on disruptive tenants, litter and negligent landlords.

"It's good to hear, and it also flies in the face of a lot of stuff that people unfortunately read and tend to think," Gray said. "It bodes well. That said, is it acceptable? No. No level of crime is acceptable. You have to continue to work on it and continue to fight against it."

Data reported by the FBI come from 17,985 governmental police agencies, as well as universities and colleges.

According to the report:

• The number of violent crimes in the city fell to 461 in 2009, down 73 from 2008.
One caveat to that statistic, though, is that the most serious of violent crimes — homicide — increased threefold. There were nine in 2009, compared to just three in 2008.
The most dramatic decrease was in the number of aggravated assaults; there were 181 in 2009, down 74, or 29 percent, from the previous year. The number of rapes in 2009 fell to 30, compared to 36 in 2008, and the number of robberies increased by one, to 241.
The last time violent crime in the city was at or below that level was 2005, according to historic FBI data. Violent crime skyrocketed in 2006, increasing 26.7 percent.

• The number of property crimes fell to 2,858 in 2009, down 217 from 2008.
The most dramatic decrease among property crimes was car theft; there were 154 in 2009, down 28, or 15.4 percent, from 2008. The number of burglaries fell nearly 10 percent, to 550, and the number of major thefts fell 5.7 percent, to 2,154, according to the FBI report.
The only property crime to show an increase was arson; there were 34 intentional fires set in the city in 2009, up six from 2008.

Courtesy of Lancaster Newspapers, Intelligencer Journal / Lancaster New Era
September 16, 2010

E-mail Tom Murse: tmurse@lnpnews.com

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