North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Wednesday that 2009 reports of crime rate in the state fell 8.8 percent and violent crime dropped by 12.5 percent resulting in the lowest reported crime rate in 25 years.
The 2009 rates in Burke County dropped even more: 10.45 percent for reported crimes, 19.81 percent for violent crimes and 9.71 percent for property crimes, according to a press release from Cooper’s office.
The decrease also marks the sharpest, single-year drop in crime rates since statewide crime reporting began in 1973, the attorney general’s office said. Despite the decreasing rates, rape report rates in the violent crime category remained the same from 2008.
The rate of property crimes dropped 8.4 percent statewide, motor vehicle theft reports decreased 25.8 percent and reports of larceny dropped 8.5 percent.
“A lower crime rate is good for North Carolina’s economic development, our safety and our quality of life,” Cooper said in the press release. “But no amount of crime is acceptable, and we must continue our focus on better technology, tougher laws and better prevention.”
Burke County Sheriff John McDevitt said his department employs concentrated patrols and community police to deter crimes.
If the department suspects an area is getting troublesome, it’ll concentrate patrols in the area to deal with the problem before it gets out of hand, McDevitt said.
“Another thing we’ve done here locally is identifying our habitual felons and prosecuting them,” McDevitt said. “And really put a push to get them in court and put them in jail instead of dealing with the same population over and over.”
Morganton Department of Public Safety Maj. Billy Bradshaw said a visible presence in the community serves as a deterrent.
“We just continue to do the job we’ve always done,” Bradshaw said, “keeping very alert and vigilant to crime on the roadways.”
Bradshaw also credits community education programs such as DARE in the schools and employer workshops as crime prevention tools. And school resource officers play a dual role by providing a presence to deter students and to support the school for law enforcement purposes.
“Catching criminals and solving cases are critical, but the best way to fight crime is to prevent it from happening in the first place,” Cooper said, “We must continue to look for innovative ways to keep kids from turning to gangs and crime, and to keep ex-offenders from becoming repeat offenders when they leave prison.”
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