AMY SZPARA

LAPLACE – Crime in St. John the Baptist Parish went up 14 percent last year, after the parish enjoyed four years of crime reduction, beginning when Sheriff Wayne L. Jones was elected to office. In 1999 a total of 1,747 crimes were committed, and in 2000 the numbers rose to 2,026. In both 1998 and 1999 three murders were committed, but last year five homicides occurred. Robbery, assault, theft and auto theft all went up from 1999, as well. There were 26 robberies in 1999, but last year there were 44 robberies. Assaults went from 462 to 505, and thefts went from 786 to 1,002. Auto thefts rose from 124 to 181. The two types of crime committed less last year were rape and burglary. No rapes were reported in 2000, whereas one was reported the year before. Burglaries dropped from 345 incidents in 1999 to 289 in 2000. According to St. John Sheriff Wayne L. Jones, the Sheriff’s Office is looking into certain areas where crime has risen. He said they have a game plan and are adding more patrol officers to the staff. Jones said though crime has slightly increased, less violent crime and drug related crime occurred in 2000. He added that “more and more are going to jail and serving time.” Chief Deputy Harold Klibert said, “We pride ourselves on the integrity of the statistics we prepare. We present it exactly as it comes in.” The statistics are openly available to the public on the St. John Sheriff’s Office website, www.stjohnsheriff.org. Klibert attributes the increase in thefts to the growing population in the area. Areas are more populated, and more businesses are moving in. “It’s very important that you plan for the future before the future plans for you,” he said, adding the parish is growing so rapidly that law enforcement has to be beefed up at a steady pace. St. John voted for a quarter-cent tax that is being used to add eight new deputies to the parish and raise starting salaries from $1,350 to $1,500 a month to keep deputies in the parish and avoid as many turnovers as possible. “We aim to be a proactive law enforcement agency, not a reactive one,” said Klibert. He said that though they want to make arrests when crime occurs, they want to prevent as much crime from happening as they can. In addition to population rising, Klibert said other factors such as 30 percent of St. John’s crime being committed by non-residents and multiple crimes being committed by the same individuals before capture are being attributed to the rise in crime in 2000. For example, Klibert said one juvenile committed 15 of the reported robberies last year. That individual alone raised the robbery statistics by 30 percent or more. “It’s important to have an open and honest line of communication between the members of law enforcement and the community,” added Klibert. Though crime has gone up, he said the sheriff’s office prides itself on letting the community know about the situation and having law enforcement do its best to remedy the problem. “If it’s down, we tell you it’s down,” Klibert said. “If it’s up 100 percent, we’ll report that, too.” More patrols have been added to the higher crime areas. One area that has been a problem for the parish is construction site robberies. Klibert said homes that are 95 percent completed have seen a higher rate of robberies. Criminals break in and steal dishwashers, ceiling fans, doors and anything they can sell. More officers are patrolling those areas. According to Klibert, the solvability rate is important in considering crime statistics. St. John Parish solves 90 percent of its crimes, which means it has double the solvability that is seen nationally. Klibert believes the new proactive approach is working. There has been a 10 percent decrease in crime for the month of January of this year. “We know what we’re doing is having some effect,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to maintain this.”