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Crime in Broomfield going down

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Contributed by: Kathryn Richert/YourHub.com on 7/28/2008

Crime in Broomfield is down for the third consecutive year in a row, thanks in part, to a 50 percent drop in burglaries in the area.

There were 39 burglaries reported in the first six months of this year compared to 79 reports in the same period in 2007, according to The Broomfield Police Department's mid-year crime report released last week.

Overall, reports of serious crime - homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft - are down 12 percent for the first six months of this year compared to the first six months of last year, with the exception of rape and aggravated assault, which went up.

The 12 percent drop in crime follows a downward trend for the past three years, according to the report. There was a 13 percent decrease in serious crime in 2007 and a 15 percent decrease in 2006.

Chief of Police Tom Deland attributes the fall to a correlation between drug use and burglaries, two areas the police department has cracked down on in the last few years.

Often the people who are doing drugs and/or distributing drugs are the people who are burglarizing to support their habits, Deland said.

"If you take people off the street who are manufacturing and distributing drugs, you take away the opportunity for them to support their habits through property crime," he said.

It's no coincidence that when people who do drugs are arrested, burglaries go down and vice versa, Deland said.

So far this year, the Broomfield Police Department has been involved in 306 drug cases versus 566 for the entire 2007 year. The Broomfield Police Department is making arrests at a higher pace than last year and Deland it's not because people are doing more drugs, Deland said. Instead there are more arrests being made, he said.

"It tells us most of the strategies we've employed are working pretty well," he said.
Most of the drug cases involve cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine, which is on the decline, Deland said.

The police department's efforts have been focused on burglaries because Broomfield doesn't see high rates of other series crimes, such as murders, rape and aggravated assault and burglaries are the crime that affects residents the most, Deland said.

Deland said of the people who burglarize in Broomfield, 41 percent are caught, compared to the national average, which is 13 percent, according to the FBI uniform crime report.

He said that high number wouldn't be possible if it weren't for neighborhood watch groups and diligent residents who call the police when they notice suspicious activity.

Neighborhood watch groups are formed when a resident calls the police department, which facilitates a meeting for the block and explains how a watch works, said Joleen Reefe, Broomfield Police Department's public education coordinator.

The police department provides stickers for residents to put up in their windows that read, "We call the police."

Reefe said the key is to communicate with neighbors to have an idea of their neighbor's schedules to identify when something is suspicious.

Another key is to call the police, even if residents are not sure there is a crime being committed, she said.

Police won't interrogate someone for sitting in a vehicle outside of a house, she said. They will just ask if there is something they can help with and find out what is going on, she said.

It's better to err on the safe side, she said.

"It's OK to call," she said.

Reports of serious crimes in the first six months of 2008 compared to the first six months of 2007, according to the Broomfield Police Department's mid-year crime report released July 22.

First Six Months	2007	2008
Homicide	0	0
Rape	2	4
Robbery	5	2
Aggravated Assault	10	11
Burglary	79	39
Larceny/Theft	541	509
Motor Vehicle Theft	33	27
Total	670	592

Neighborhood Watch

Start a neighborhood watch.Call the Broomfield Police Department's public education coordinator at 720-887-2084.

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