Annual Report: Crime in East End

Annual Report: Crime in East End

Every year, the F.B.I. records and publishes information on crime in the United States. Their report is compiled from data collected by local law enforcement agencies across the nation. Because states vary in their definitions of crimes, the FBI report is purposely broad in its classification categories. This means that only the most commonly recognized offenses are tallied in the report. These are known as “part-one offenses,” and they do not include drug or fraud related crimes, among others.

Our crime analyst has compiled the numbers, and they have been arranged in a table shown below. The table shows a slight overall decrease in crimes in 2011, as compared to 2010, caused by a reduction in minor crimes and an increase in major violent crimes. We had the first murder in six years, but burglaries, attempted murders, and manslaughter have all decreased. On the other hand, sex offences and auto thefts have increased considerably.

These numbers support a conclusion that many residents already seem to know—despite being a victim of a poor economy, East End is still a safe place to live, work, and visit. In fact, compared to many other areas in the County, East End’s per capita violent crime rate has historically been and continues to be very low.

As we enter a new year with even more challenges, police commanders recognize that we are better safe than sorry, but there is need to improve vigilance on crimesr. We have to get to work addressing the burglaries and thefts that victimized hundreds of our residents last year. Moving in this direction, the police department will be refocusing its mission. As you will see throughout this report, true community policing will become the priority, and the directive to the officers will be: “solve problems for good, not just for the day.”

Between the years, 2010 and 2011, major crimes in East End have generally gone down. However, there are mixed results for individual crimes. For instance, cases of murder have gone up from none in 2010 to a solitary case in 2011. This marks a 100% increase in this crime from the previous year. Sex offences and major assault cases have also increased considerably. Cases of sex offences have increse4d from a solitary case in 2010 to three cases in 2011. This marks a 200% increase in the crime, according to the records by our crime analysts. Additionally, cases of serious assaults have increased to 20 cases in 2011, compared to 16 cases in 2010. This marks a 25% increase in the crime. Theft has also gone up by ten cases, marking an 11% increase from the year 2010. The characteristics of crimes that have experienced remarkable increase in the last one year indicates points to a slake in the vigilance of the police officers and other law enforcers, especially on violent crimes. However, this may also indicate that the people of East End are not motivated to facilitate community policing. They are either not co-operating with the police or are scared of the criminals, who may be people they know, from their neighborhoods.

On the other hand, cases of manslaughter and attempted murder have gone down from the previous year. Manslaughter cases have reduced from a solitary case in 2010 to none, marking a 100% decrease in the crime. Attempted murder cases have gone up from two cases in 2010 to four cases in 2011, marking a 50% reduction.

Within the same period, minor crimes in East End have generally gone down. However, cases of Drug trafficking or abuse, and minor assaults have gone up considerably. Drug cases have gone up by five cases, from eight in 2010 to thirteen in 2011. This marks a 63% increase in the crime. Minor assault cases have gone down by ten cases over the one-year period, marking a 23% decrease in the crime. Remarkable, however, is the decrease of cases of weapon dealing and unauthorized ownership of weapons by 63%, within a period of one year. This may be indicating of increased police vigilance on this form of crime since the margin of decrease here is high, and would be thought not achievable in a year’s period, especially due to the nature of the crime. Such results could, therefore, only have been achieved by increasing police vigilance and intelligence to this form of crime.  

The overall minor crimes in East End reduced considerably, a statistics attributed to the decrease in weapons, public order, and damages crimes among others. Reducing by twenty-two cases, from 152 cases in 2010 to 130 cases in 2011, the decrease in minor criminal cases in East End have largely contributed to the overall decrease in crimes in East End in general. This is putting in to consideration the fact that major crimes considerably increased, increasing by 14 cases, from 219 cases in 2010 to 233 cases in the year 2011. The overall crime cases in East End has decreased by 2% between 2010 and 2011, a fete that can only be achieved by increased vigilance and surveillance, and identification of crimes at most risk of occurrence, then rectifying their situations.

However, individual crimes like murder and sexual offences are on the rise and need to be tackled. Considering the nature of these crimes, the police and other law enforcement departments may require the help of citizens to curb them. As such, the principle of community policing ought to be emphasized in East End. This is because the criminals live among the residents, and most of these residents know who they are. The information these residents may provide to the law enforcement departments in the city may be the key to curbing these crimes.

The lack of true community policing in East End is perhaps evidenced by the low rate of arrests. For instance, of the 371 crimes recorded in 2010, only 60 arrests were made. This is indicative of the lack of flow of information that can serve as admissible evidence, from the witnesses in the various cases, who are residents of the town. However, the increase in the number of arrests in 2011 to 68, despite a decrease in the number of crimes, is indicative of adoption of the right approach, and lying down of an effective platform for enhancement of true community policing.    

In conclusion, the trends of crime in East End are indicative of its police department’s weakness in one area, true community policing. If this were improved, the rate of crimes in the town would be considerably lowered.