Naperville police chief says major crime in city continues to fall
While a "microburst" of high-profile incidents may give the appearance of increased criminal activity, Naperville's police chief said the most-recent statistics indicate the number of major crimes in the city continues to drop.
Two murders in January and the fatal shooting of a hatchet-wielding man by a police officer attracted extra attention, Chief Jason Arres said, because of an "information wave" provided by the police department in an effort at transparency.
Discussing crime statistics from the first six months of 2022 on Friday, Arres said numbers actually have decreased in key categories such as robberies. There were five in the first six months of this year compared to nine last year.
As an example of the general drop in city crime, Arres said, there were about 290 burglaries in 1993, while the range in the last few years has been 130 to 150.
"We put so much information out there," Arres said. "Because we do that, it gives off this feel that crime is way up. And it's just not."
Arres said an apples-to-apples comparison in most crime categories for the first six months of 2021 and 2022 is not available because of a new federally mandated system of reporting numbers. The first true comparison under the new system will be available with the six-month statistics at the end of 2022.
Several areas of concern remain for police, Arres said, including the number of firearms seized - 84 in the first six months of this year. And there were 68 cases of fleeing vehicles compared to 101 in all of 2021.
Arres also noted the impact of financial crimes in the city. Through June of this year, 81 people were scammed in various ways for a total of nearly $728,000.
Arres continued to stress the importance of locking vehicles and homes. He said 85% of thefts from vehicles and 70% of residential burglaries occurred with no forced entry.
"Again, lock your stuff," Arres said. "A little bit more vigilance on our part as a community can prevent these crimes from happening."