St. John Sheriff’s Office reports overall crime incidents down from last year post-Katrina

By BEN LUNDIN

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – Crime rose in post-Katrina St. John Parish in 2006, but fears that the area would be riddled with violent crime were quelled Wednesday morning, when the Sheriff’s Office unveiled the annual crime statistics for 2006.

Although crime increased by 7%, from 1694 crimes in 2005 to 1809 in 2006, violent crime declined by approximately 25%.

Of the crimes reported, theft increased by 8%, motor vehicle theft by 29%, burglary by 17% and robbery by 26%, while rape dropped 21% and assaults declined 17%. The parish had four homicides, one less than the previous year.

&#8220Without question I would tell you that 2006 has been an extremely busy year,” Sheriff Wayne Jones said. &#8220Not just for St. John Parish but for law enforcement in general. Everybody’s crime stats are a little up because we’re going through the same thing. My biggest concern was the violent crime in the community and for that to have a decrease – I’m gratified by that.”

In response to the increased crime rate, Jones plans to hire twelve new employees, eight additional patrolmen, two narcotics division deputies and two criminal investigators, and have them active by April 15, 2007.

The Sheriff’s Office also installed a system of &#8220pro-active policing.”

&#8220If we see a person at two in the morning walking down the street we’re going to stop and see who this person is and fill out a field contact card.” Jones said. &#8220Let’s say it happened on Walnut Street and the next morning there was a burglary on Walnut Street of somebody’s truck. We want to find out what the person walking in that area is all about.”

&#8220You have to be pro-active right now rather than re-active because of what’s been going on since the storm,” he added.

Jones noted that because a crime is reported on the statistics sheet does not mean that an illegal act occurred. Notably, he expects motor vehicle thefts, of which 157 were reported, to be considerably less in actuality.

&#8220To have a theft is when you have to deprive the person of the vehicle on a permanent basis, versus letting somebody use your car to do a rock ride,” he said. &#8220A rock ride is when you let somebody use your car to buy some crack and they don’t bring it back.”

St. Charles Parish and Jefferson Parish each experienced increases in crime, of 4.7% and 12.4%, respectively.