So far, so good for the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.
During the first quarter of 2008, crime fell by 2.38 percent when compared to the same period in 2007.That was a reduction from 474 total crimes to 463 and is the lowest first quarter total in more than 12 years.
“We are pleased the long-term figures identify a decrease in reported crimes,” Sheriff Greg Champagne said. “We have implemented a number of new programs to attack crime on all fronts.”
Champagne says that each of those programs, such as Triad, which is a senior citizen education program, DARE, neighborhood watch and the department’s email alert system have all helped reduce crime. Also, because Champagne has been able to increase pay for the last two and a half years, more employees are staying with the department.
“The deputies on patrol and in investigations are becoming more and more experienced and career oriented,” Champagne said. “We have recently been able to add detectives in criminal investigations, juvenile and narcotics.”
That has allowed the department to place more emphasis on identifying and arresting drug offenders, which has a positive impact on the overall crime rate.
The major decreases this quarter came in the number of assaults and burglaries. Assaults fell from 198 to 172, while the number of reported burglaries dropped from 84 to 72 from the same period last year. Rape and auto theft fell by one.
While a majority of the reported crimes decreased, there were small rises in robbery and theft. There were 15 robberies reported this quarter as opposed to eight robberies in the same quarter last year. The number of thefts increased from 158 in the first quarter of 2007 to 180 thefts in the first quarter of 2008.
“What we are good at is conducting intense criminal investigations focusing on emerging crime trends and catching offenders,” Champagne said. “For example, the statistics on robbery are a little high this quarter because of a spurt in robberies in the Destrehan area where some commercial establishments were robbed in a short period of time.
“We were able to identify and arrest some perpetrators fairly quickly there and bring that specific crime spree to a halt. Had we not been able to, victims might have experienced several more of those.”
And while the single quarter reduction is impressive, Champagne says the overall decrease in crime is even more so.
“I don’t like to put too much emphasis on a single quarter of crime stats because this can fluctuate greatly either up or down,” he said. “What is important is to look at long term trends. That trend is still going in a positive direction.”
Despite the increase in population the parish has seen since Hurricane Katrina, the reported crime totals have continued to fall over the years, from 2,834 incidents in 1996 to 2,179 in 2007.
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