Stats show crime down in St. John

Published 12:00 am Saturday, July 17, 1999

ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / July 17, 1999

LAPLACE- St. John Parish Sheriff Wayne L. Jones released crime statisticsfor the first six months of 1999, and there has been an overall 9 percent decrease in crime from the same period last year.

“I’m very happy with the 1999 statistics so far,” stated Jones.

Forcible rape and robberies had the biggest decreases with 75 percent and 59 percent, respectively. Criminal homicides were down by 50 percent,burglaries came down by 25 percent and auto thefts decreased by 24 percent. The smallest decrease was larceny-theft, which only went downby 1 percent.

The only increase for the period of January through June 1999 was assaults, which went up by 6 percent. Jones attributes this rise to kidsbeing out of school and getting into fights and minor altercations.

This decrease in crime has been a continuing trend here in St. John Parish.”Starting in 1998, we had a decrease in all categories of crime for all four quarters.” said Jones. “Before that we were averaging eight to ninehomicides a year, and then in 1998, we had three.”The sheriff attributes the downturn in crime to several factors.

For starters, he said there are more deputies on the streets because of the Universal Hiring Program. In 1997, Jones went to Washington D.C. and withthe help of senators Mary Landrieu and John Breaux was able to get $600,00 grant from the UHP to hire and train 22 additional deputies.

“This means that instead of eight deputies per shift, we can put 12 deputies out on the street,” Jones said. “We now have a greater policepresence in the community.”Without the grant, Jones said he would not be able to pay for the extra deputies. The sheriff’s office pays for 25 percent of the deputies’ salary,and the federal grant puts in the remaining 75 percent.

The sheriff said the inception of the Felony Intercept Unit has also helped in cutting down crime. The FIU is made up of five deputies who are pro-active in their duties.

“They don’t wait for calls or emergencies,” explained Jones. “They go intoproblem areas and address crime at the street level.”Their basic job is to prevent things before they get out of hand.

To find problem areas in the parish, Jones has instituted another program called Citizens Contact Card. He has ordered his deputies to introducethemselves to at least two citizens a day. They are to ask the citizenabout any crime problem they may have in the area. This data is taken backto the sheriff’s department and analyzed. From this information Jones andhis staff can tell which part of the community is having problems and then something can be done. Communication with the community is veryimportant to the sheriff.

“I want my deputies to interface with the community on a personal level,” he said, “We have to instill more involvement with the public.”Jones believes getting tough with repeat offenders has also changed things in the parish. The District Attorney’s Office and the sheriff havestarted a program called Drug Court. Every month, all three divisions ofcriminal courts puts aside a day when all they do is handle drug cases.

The result have been many repeat drug offenders being put behind bars.

Jones believes that getting the drug dealers and drug users off the street has led to the decrease in robberies, thefts and homicides.

“Most of our homicides used to be drug dealers killing the competition or doing revenge killings,” Jones said. “But because of Drug Court, drugoffenders are disappearing off our streets.”To help defray costs for this extra court time, Jones is paying the salaries of the prosecutors during Drug Court.

With St. John Parish’s population growing at such a fast clip, Jones hashad to keep pace.

“Thanks to the federal dollars and public support, we have been able to keep up with the growth of the parish,” he said. “I’m proud of thisdepartment. Our morale is high. “Keeping up with the latest law-enforcement equipment is also a priority for the sheriff. Since 1997, he has budgeted the sheriff’s department$300,00 a year for equipment. d The results have been more and better-equipped cars, a K-9 unit, four Crime Scene vans and four Crime Scene officers.

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