The City of Greenville experienced a significant decrease in overall crime during 2014, despite reported spikes in the numbers of murders, arsons and rapes.
Greenville Chief of Police Daniel Busken said there appeared to be no connection between the half-dozen homicides, or the one dozen arson fires, reported locally last year. The increase in rapes, and a sharp decrease in assaults, are due, in part, to changes in the way the offenses are being recorded.
“2014 offered some interesting contrasts with regard to our crime statistics,” Busken said.
In total, the city’s crime rate dropped by 11.2 percent between the end of 2013 and the close of 2014.
After reporting no murders during 2013, the City of Greenville experienced a total of six homicides last year.
“In each of the murders, drugs or alcohol seemed to be contributing factors which lead to the violence,” Busken said. “The Greenville Police Department continues to investigate these cases while we are waiting for forensic results from the crime lab.”
Busken added the police department had determined there are no links between the murders and that the crimes were random in nature.
There were five arson fires in Greenville during 2013, but 12 during 2014, a 140 percent increase. Busken said investigators have been unable to pinpoint a reason for the spike, but there is no belief any of the cases are related as no discernible pattern has been discovered.
There were 15 rapes reported in 2013, and 29 during 2014, an increase of more than 93 percent. Busken said the State of Texas changed the definition of rape under the Uniform Crime Report to read “instances in which offenders use drugs or alcohol on victims who know them, or offenders who sodomize victims of the same gender will be counted as rape for statistical purposes.”
He added the department anticipated the increase in the category due to the change in definition.
On the other hand, the City of Greenville reported a 22.3 percent decrease in total assaults and a 51.4 percent decrease in aggravated assaults from year to year.
But again, Busken said a likely factor in the decrease is due to a change in the method of reporting such incidences. In previous years, when two individuals assaulted one another, two reports were completed. The department now completes only one report for the incident.
Also contributing to the reported decrease is a recent change in state law, which prohibits officers from issuing citations to a child who is alleged to have committed an offense while on school property. As such, no citations were issued to students for Class C Assault, Busken said.
The crimes are now being enforced by the Greenville Independent School District, which provides counseling and administers any penalties for assaults on school grounds, although the police department is still active in counseling students with regard to law enforcement subjects on an “as needed” basis.
There were 44 robberies last year, down 21.4 percent from the 56 reported in 2013. There were 56 automobile thefts in 2014, down 13.8 percent from year to year. And there were 948 overall thefts last year , down 4.4 percent from the 906 thefts two years ago.
During 2014, the Greenville Police Department answered 9,153 phone calls through the “911” system and responded to a total of 31,372 calls for service. Officers also made 7,172 traffic stops and arrested 1,277 adults.
Busken said the numbers were greatly reduced from 2013, during which 9,557 “911” calls were answered with a total of 32,883 calls for service. Traffic stops in 2013 totaled 8,897 and 1,527 adults were arrested. He explained traffic stops are a part of the “calls for service” category, largely attributing to the decrease in overall calls for service.