(AP) — The number of major crimes committed in Baton Rouge last year dropped 9 percent from 2009, according to statistics released by the Baton Rouge Police Department.
Crimes against people — murder, rape, robbery and assault — fell more than 10 percent, the statistics show.
Crimes against property —burglary, larceny, arson and motor vehicle theft — were down nearly 9 percent.
The number of homicides in Baton Rouge fell from 75 in 2009 — the highest on record — to 69 in 2010.
“Even a 1 percent decrease would be welcomed, but 9 percent, we’ll take that,” police spokesman Sgt. Donald Stone said on Wednesday. “And we’re going to keep making strides toward getting that number higher.”
Although Stone was unsure exactly what attributed to the decrease, he said the department implemented new programs and technologies to deter criminals, including the police helicopter acquired last year.
The department’s bait car and license plate reader helped lower the number of auto thefts in the city by 26 percent, Stone said.
The number of robberies and arsons also declined significantly, he added. Each decreased 16 percent to 948 and 173, respectively.
The drop in overall crime mirrors what happened across the nation last year, according to statistics recently released by the FBI.
Nationally, murder fell 4 percent in 2010, the statistics show.
Rape and aggravated assault also fell 4 percent, and robbery dropped 10 percent. Property crimes decreased 3 percent.
For the most part, the amount of crime in Baton Rouge last year also resembled what happened in five other southern cities — Mobile, Ala.; Jackson, Miss.; Little Rock, Ark.; Montgomery, Ala.; and Shreveport, according to a Police Department survey.
Edward Shihadeh, LSU sociology professor and criminologist, told The Advocate Baton Rouge’s close proximity to New Orleans contributes to its homicide numbers being higher than in cities of comparable sizes.
“Katrina blew a lot of things our way,” he said. “It did send us plenty of good people looking for relief and a way to get home, but it also transmitted a criminal culture.”
That criminal culture, Shihadeh said, is still thriving in Baton Rouge, despite what last year’s crime statistics show.
The decrease, he said, was a “minor blip on an otherwise upward trend.”