Crime up but so are felony arrests in DeKalb

The big categories in DeKalb crime statistics continue to be bad news.

Violent crime: up 5 percent so far this year, on top of an 8 percent increase last year.

Property crime: up 15 percent this year, after an 18 percent jump in 2007.

The numbers are especially unsettling considering the FBI says violent crime and property crime decreased nationally last year.

Like DeKalb, most of metro Atlanta’s large police departments posted increases in violent crime last year.

DeKalb Deputy Chief Michael Burrows, the county police force’s criminal investigation commander, points to another line on the department’s tally sheet.

County police made 5,409 felony arrests in the first nine months of 2008, up 14 percent from the same period of the previous year.

“So the enforcement is there by the detectives and the officers,” said Burrows, who retired from the department Friday.

Burrows credited “aggressive patrolling” for a 6 percent drop in business burglaries.

He said the department’s major target in property crime now is residential burglary, the category which causes most of the increase in property crime.

In the violent crime ledger, homicides could set a third consecutive record high in 2008. The total for nine months stood at 86, excluding two fatal shootings by police officers.

Meanwhile, numbers of aggravated assaults and rapes fell last year and are lower so far in 2008.

The big percentage increase in violent crime actually is driven by pedestrian robberies, another category getting a lot of attention.

Officers in eight squad cars, drawn from the South and East police precincts, gathered recently behind a QT convenience store in south DeKalb.

They were about to swarm into a nearby apartment complex and set up what is politely called a “safety check” — a roadblock to sweep up drivers and passengers with outstanding warrants or suspended licenses. Armed robbers were the real target.

Pedestrian robberies usually happen at night and often as people walk between apartment complexes far from view of the street.

If an officer isn’t lucky enough to be very close by, it’s almost impossible to catch a robber in the act.

Lt. B.C. Harris said the idea behind the roadblock is that a suspect arrested for a misdemeanor in the daylight “was going to commit an armed robbery tonight.”

Within 20 minutes of starting the roadblock, officers had three people in handcuffs awaiting transport to the county jail.

Burrows, the deputy chief, said the department closely monitors where robberies are reported and targets those areas.

“The more visibility, the more blue lights are on, the more criminals are going to see us and say ‘We need to go somewhere else’, ” Burrows said.

DeKalb police arrested 623 burglary suspects in the first eight months of this year, including 180 juveniles, Burrows said.

Daytime burglars tend to be kids, often truant from school. At night, the professionals come out.

The economic downturn has led to more burglaries of vacant houses by thieves looking for copper fixtures and wiring, Burrows said.

The department could not provide statistics on copper thefts.

Officials are preparing an ordinance to present to the county commission which would regulate sales of copper and other metals to recyclers in much the same way pawn shop sales are regulated, Burrows said. Sellers would be photographed, along with the vehicles they used to haul the metal.

Meanwhile, the department’s public education specialists are spreading the word that residents should call police whenever they see a suspicious car or person at a neighbor’s home or cruising the neighborhood.

“Don’t take action — call us,” Burrows said.

He said police do not regard such calls as a waste of time, even if the suspicious person does not turn out to be a burglar.