Crime in unincorporated Gwinnett County is on the decline this year, dispelling concerns that turmoil in the economy would spill onto the street.
So far in 2009, police say there has been a 14 percent decrease in carjackings, a 28 percent decrease in commercial burglaries, a 9 percent decrease in residential burglaries and a 14 percent decrease in motor vehicle thefts over the same time frame last year.
Violent crime also has gone down. There have been 21 homicides so far this year, compared with 23 at this time last year. Aggravated assaults decreased by 11 percent, and the number of rapes stayed the same. Robberies increased slightly, by 1.5 percent.
Gwinnett police spokesman Cpl. David Schiralli attributed the decrease to the hard work of officers and increased cooperation from citizens. He said there has not been a significant difference in the number of police officers on the street.
“The community are the eyes and ears of the police department,” Schiralli said. “They are informing us of what’s going on.”
Gwinnett police are not alone in sharing good news. Earlier this month, Atlanta police reported that crime was down 10 percent in the city in 2009. In unincorporated Cobb County, crime decreased 9 percent during the first six months of this year compared with the same time frame last year.
Robert Friedmann, criminal justice professor at Georgia State University, said the statistics are not surprising because “crime trends are at times independent of what police are doing.”
Friedmann also said we may not have seen the full impact of the recession yet, because changes in crime statistics sometimes lag changes in the economy. He said crime could go back up in the last quarter of the year, when property crimes and domestic violence associated with the holidays usually increase.
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