Crime was up in Riverside for the second straight year in 2009, with thefts again accounting for much of the increase according to statistics released by Riverside police on March 4.
According to the village’s preliminary uniform crime report for 2009, which has been submitted to the Illinois State Police, the number of reportable crimes in Riverside were up 15 percent over 2008.
The uniform crime report tracks the number of serious violent and property crimes occurring within an agency’s jurisdiction during a calendar year. The report focuses on eight categories, including murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault/battery, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
In 2009, Riverside reported 201 total crimes versus 175 in 2008. Crime has spiked in the village since 2007, when the village reported its lowest number of crimes (114) in over a decade.
Since 2007, the number of reportable crimes in Riverside has jumped 76 percent, driven principally by thefts, which have increased from 64 in 2007 to 167 in 2009, an increase of 161 percent.
The 167 thefts reported last year was the highest number recorded in Riverside since 1996.
In response, said Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel, the department has shifted its patrol focus.
“It’s a large jump and we are increasing our residential patrol,” Weitzel said. “But thefts are crimes of opportunity.”
Weitzel said that police are trying to do a better job educating residents on how to prevent thefts, urging them to do simple things, like locking the doors of vehicles parked outside.
“Our theft reports will actively go down if people lock their homes and cars and left their lights on outside their homes at night,” Weitzel said, adding that the village’s dark streets provide plenty of concealment for thieves, who will work their way down blocks testing car door handles one by one.
“They just go from car door to car door until they find one open,” he said.
While thefts continued to rise in 2009, the number of burglaries fell 53 percent. The 16 burglaries reported in 2009 were the lowest number since 2004 and tied for the second lowest total since 1996.
Robberies, however, were up in 2009. Riverside police reported six street robberies last year, the highest number in a single calendar year going back to 1996. In 2008, the village reported one robbery and has averaged fewer than two robberies annually for the past 13 years.
The positive news related to Riverside’s robberies is that most, if not all, of the suspects in those robberies were arrested and charged. The village has experienced no robberies so far in 2010.
“The patrol force is out there making arrests,” Weitzel said. “We are doing a better job of following up on cases and making arrests.”
Another category showing a marked decrease in 2009 was aggravated assault/battery. Police in Riverside reported just three such cases last year in a crime category that from 1998 to 2007 averaged 42 incidents.
Weitzel said that the reporting rules for battery changed after 2006, when misdemeanor battery cases no longer had to be reported to the state for the uniform crime report.
In addition to the three incidents reported to the state in 2009, Weitzel said there were 21 simple battery charges last year that did not make the report.
The uniform crime report also does not require agencies to post statistics on arrests for driving under the influence, which fell in 2009, according to Weitzel.
After seeing the second-highest number of DUI arrests ever in 2008, Riverside police made only 74 DUI arrests in 2009, its lowest total in at least six years. Riverside made a record 140 DUI arrests in 2005.