After two years of declining crime numbers, Brookfield’s crime rate inched upward by 6.2 percent in 2006 thanks mainly to a rise in thefts. Meanwhile, the village also saw an increase in some violent crimes, with both robberies and criminal sexual assaults edging upward though remaining few in number overall.

The crime numbers come courtesy of the Illinois State Police’s Uniform Crime Report, which tracks eight different categories, including murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault/battery, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.

According to the latest report, released to local departments in February, Brookfield noted 404 reportable crimes during 2006. In 2005, by contrast, Brookfield reported 385, an increase of just under 5 percent. While higher than last year, the number of crimes is still lower than any year since at least 1996 and much lower than the high-water marks of over 550 crimes reported in 2001 and 2003.

However, since Brookfield population fell slightly in 2006, the village’s statistical crime rate rose by just over 6 percent.

Deputy Police Chief Michael Manescalchi said that he couldn’t say for sure what types of theft accounted for a 21.3 percent rise in that category. Some 308 incidents of theft were reported to Brookfield police in 2006, the highest number since 2003.

“It’s a really broad thing,” Manescalchi said of the thefts. “It could be everything from leaving a bike in the front yard to leaving your cell phone on the seat of a car. The really common thing is cell phones.”

No homicides were reported in Brookfield for the fifth straight year. In 2001, one murder was reported by police. However, the number of robberies jumped in 2006 to six. In 2005, three had been reported. That’s the most robberies reported since 2003, when there were eight.

The number of criminal sexual assaults rose in 2006 to three from two in 2005. Two of those cases, according to Manescalchi, involved offenders and victims who are minors. The third was the arrest of a 21-year-old Bellwood man who reportedly had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old Brookfield girl.

Meanwhile, Brookfield saw decreases in a number of other categories, including burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson and aggravated assault/battery.

The number of burglaries in Brookfield dropped 28.2 percent, with 61 incidents reported in 2006 versus 85 in 2005. That is far and away the fewest number of burglaries reported in Brookfield since 2000. From 2000-03, Brookfield reported no fewer than 184 burglaries annually. In 2004, that number dropped dramatically to 74 before edging upward to 85 in 2005.

The number of aggravated assault/battery cases dropped into the single digits in 2006, according to Brookfield police, who reported just nine instances. As recently as 2001, Brookfield reported 89 aggravated assault/battery cases. After reporting 48 in 2002, Brookfield changed the way it was reporting those cases, however.

After concluding that misdemeanor counts of battery did not qualify as reportable crimes, the number of those cases fell dramatically. In 2003, Brookfield reported just 11 cases.

While the number of reportable crimes rose in 2006, the number of arrests for those crimes fell, according to the same report.

Of the 404 total reportable crimes, Brookfield police made 34 arrests. In 2005, the department made 47 arrests on 385 crimes. As a result the village’s arrest rate fell by nearly 27 percent.

The number of drug-related offense arrests, which are tallied separately, was the same as in 2005, at 32.