According to figures released in February by the Illinois State Police, the number of crimes in Riverside fell by nearly 12 percent, with the village seeing significantly fewer thefts in 2006 compared to 2005.

The Uniform Crime Report, which tracks crime figures and crime trends for every municipality in Illinois, revealed that apart from fewer thefts, crime in Riverside was relatively static. The report tracks eight different crime categories, including murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault/battery, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.

Riverside reported 76 thefts in the village in 2006, the lowest number in that category since 2000, when there were 70. In 2005, the department reported 112 thefts, meaning incidents of theft were down by 32 percent in 2006.

Assistant Police Chief Thomas Weitzel noted that thefts in which no force was involved dropped noticeably in 2006.

“That indicates that people are either locking things up or not leaving them out in the open,” Weitzel said.

Otherwise, things didn’t change all that much in the village last year. Criminal sexual assault dropped from one to zero. Robberies increased from one to three, and aggravated assault/battery jumped from 52 to 57.

Of the three robberies in the village, two resulted in arrests. In both cases it was communication with neighboring departments that keyed the arrests.

“It shows the cooperation among police departments,” Weitzel said. “We can communicate with each other in a very timely fashion.”

The number of burglaries increased for the third straight year in 2006. Riverside police reported 29 burglaries last year versus 22 in 2005. It’s the highest number of burglaries reported in the village since 1996, when the village was hit with a whopping 60 cases. Since that year, the village has averaged 23 burglaries annually.

On the other hand, while police made just two burglary arrests in 2005, they made 19 in 2006.

At least six of those burglaries are directly related to a spree in September that ended in the arrest of two people in October. Kevin Wheet and Therese Hurley have since been indicted by a Cook County grand jury for a slew of burglaries in the west and southwest suburbs last year.

Riverside police also noted that drug offense arrests were down 26 percent in 2006 from 2005. In addition to six fewer arrests for possession of cannabis, the department reported 16 fewer offenses for possession of drug paraphernalia. Possession of a controlled substance arrests held steady at 16.

Apart from the Uniform Crime Report, Riverside police noted that they made fewer arrests for driving under the influence in 2006 after two straight years of increased DUI arrests.

In 2006, Riverside police arrested 115 drivers for DUI, compared with 121 in 2004 and 140 in 2005. The 2006 figure, however, is still well above the number of DUI offenses from 2003, when Riverside officers arrested 60 people.

North Riverside crime rate up 8.3%

North Riverside, like a handful of small towns in suburban Cook County home to large retail shopping centers, has one of the highest crime rates in the county, according to the state police’s Uniform Crime Report. In fact, according to the state police, in 2005 North Riverside had the fourth-highest crime rate in suburban Cook County. The top three-Bedford Park, Ford Heights and Hodgkins.

In 2006, while the final list has not yet been posted on the Illinois State Police Web site, that’s not likely to change. In fact, the village’s crime rate rose 8.3 percent and the number of reportable offenses jumped 7 percent. North Riverside, a village of just over 6,300 people, reported 853 total reportable offenses. That’s over double the number of offenses of Brookfield, a village of just under 18,500.

The reason? North Riverside’s retail shopping base, which includes two large shopping strip malls and a regional shopping mall.

Of the 853 crimes reported by police, 788 were theft cases. The vast majority of those thefts were retail thefts from the village’s stores. Thefts were up 8.7 percent in 2006, but the number for 2006 is actually below average. From 1996-2005, North Riverside averaged 798 thefts. The shopping centers also account for a good number of the villages 21 motor vehicle thefts.

“It’s one of those things we’ve got to deal with no matter what,” said Chief Anthony Garvey. “A large part of that activity comes from the people that come to the mall.”

The village experienced an increase in aggravated assault/battery in 2006. North Riverside police reported 18 cases versus just four in 2005. Three of those incidents were assaults against police officers attempting to make an arrest and another was against a mall security guard attempting to detain a suspect.

Five incidents stemmed from traffic altercations and one occurred on a Pace bus. Just four incidents stemmed from situations at village residences, Garvey said.

Outside of the shopping areas, the village was relatively quiet. There were no murders or criminal sexual assault cases in the village last year. Burglaries dropped from 30 in 2005 to 15 in 2006. There were three incidents of arson reported.