Tulsa World: Crime rate drops in Tulsa

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Crime rate drops in Tulsa

Tulsa Police Officer Jamie Wofford walks back to his patrol car after responding to a residential burglary call Friday afternoon. Burglaries and other types of crimes were reported fewer times last year than the year before in Tulsa. STEPHEN HOLMAN / Tulsa World

By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer
Published: 2/17/2007 4:19 AM
Last Modified: 4/17/2008 4:53 PM

Police chief credits putting more officers on the streets

The number of violent and property crimes in Tulsa dropped in every category in 2006, resulting in a 4.4 percent decline in overall crime here since the year before.

Last year, 29,292 crimes were reported in Tulsa, compared with 30,642 in 2005, according to the Tulsa Police Department's figures.

The crime total includes the categories of homicide, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, larceny and auto theft.

Police Chief Dave Been said efforts to increase manpower apparently helped reduce the city's crime rate.

"Studies show that the more police you have out there, the more you can reduce crime," he said.

The police force is recovering from a manpower crisis that saw the department with about 100 fewer officers than its authorized strength of 796 after academy classes were put on hiatus for two years because of budget cutbacks.

Academies were reinstated in 2004, and as of Feb. 1, the department had 808 sworn officers, Officer Jason Willingham said.

Been said a year ago that he thinks the department needs at least 1,000 officers.

High-profile violent crimes can lead to the perception that a crime wave is occurring. But while violent crimes such as homicides and robberies were on record pace at the first of last year, efforts to target the violence paid off, police say.

"We really want to emphasize the fact that crime is actually down," Been

said. "That is something that we can be thankful for."

Last year was the second in a row during which overall crime in Tulsa decreased. However, the decrease in 2005 was driven by a reduction in the number of larcenies reported to police, while most violent crime categories went up, records show.

Crime statistics are gathered according to state and federal guidelines and become part of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports system, a national clearinghouse for crime statistics.

Been also credited "good hard police work" by patrol officers and detectives with making a difference last year.

"At the first of the year, we put quite a few repeat offenders in prison," said Capt. Dennis MacDonnell, supervisor of the detectives who investigate property crimes.

Auto theft was the crime category that dropped the most in 2006, with 14.1 percent fewer auto thefts than in 2005.

MacDonnell said several of the cases investigated last year involved chop shops. One case in particular targeted thieves who used a tow truck to steal abandoned cars off the streets.

The second-largest percentage drop occurred in robberies, with an 8.3 percent decrease. That drop was despite the year starting at a rapid pace in that category.

In January 2006, 140 robberies were reported -- more than in any single month in the previous five years.

Robbery Unit Sgt. Dave Walker said detectives described it as a "perfect storm" because several groups of robbers were working all at once.

In response, Been authorized the formation of an armed robbery task force in February.

The task force made 60 arrests in nearly two months and helped curtail the rash of robberies.

"We are trying to prioritize our time so that we get the suspects off the street before they get a chance to rob again," Walker said. "If we have a lead, such as a tag number, and they hit again, we are not going home until we find them."

Detectives believe that one person was responsible for at least 17 robberies last year.

Been said he attended a Major Cities Chiefs Association conference this week in California and talked with other police chiefs about their year-end crime totals.

"In a lot of cities, crime is up -- especially violent crimes," Been said, "so we are very pleased to see that our crime actually went down."

Nicole Marshall 581-8459
nicole.marshall@tulsaworld.com

By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer

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