In the recent days The Telegraph has reported statistics on the crime rate in Alton. The Alton Police Department deserves a lot of credit in helping towards making Alton a safer place, but we have a long ways to go to make it safer. The APD is only as good as the citizens reporting crime and standing up as witnesses. They cannot do the job by themselves. Additionally, if our police department needs more equipment and/or manpower, then the citizens of Alton need to be willing to put up the money to make this happen. On the other hand, I think our mayor has made an effort to use the figures to be more positive. It is always good to show the positive and use it as a stepping stone, but the mayor needs to acknowledge that in reality the numbers should be looked at cautiously. I am not resisting any changes the mayor or APD have put in place, but we need to dissect the numbers more efficiently.
The Illinois State Police indicated that crime was down 9.3% which was .7% higher than Mayor Sandidge reported. That sounds like a great figure, but you need to dig deeper to understand those results. Burglary and theft took significant drops, but murder and arson reports remained the same. Criminal sexual assault reports were up 21% and arrests up 63%; robbery reports up 3% and arrests up 22%; aggravated assault reports up 88% and arrests up 3%; motor theft reports up 11% and arrests up 44%.
If you look at the statistics individually as they should be, the citizens of Alton should be demanding to see a plan on reducing these crimes. The Weed and Seed Program is an excellent example of gaining control of areas that are blighted by drug dealings and I commend everyone involved in the program. Burglary and theft were down significantly, but why? Was it because business and residents installed more alarms, video systems? Or was it because of more police presents to deterring the crime. The facts of lower crime are not really sufficient to say Alton made a significant reduction in the crime rate. In fact the more critical crimes indicate the city is less safe than a year ago. All of these numbers need to be drilled down to understand why it is happening. It is easy to speculate, but the truth of the fact is that numbers drive the story, and until you totally analyze the statistics, we will not know the underlying story. This is a basic business methodology that is used in process improvement on any type of study, and can be used in this quandary as well.
I am not being critical of the reduction of crime in what I consider less serous crimes. However as a citizen of Alton, I like to understand why the other more serious crimes took such significant jumps in the last year. We still have a long way to go, and the citizens need to stand up and help make changes by getting involved.
