Stats: Home invasions, animal complaints and juvenile issues on the rise in Washtenaw County
Residents who live in areas policed by the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office were slightly more likely to have their homes burgled in 2012 compared with 2011, according to crime statistics in a recently released community report.
Complaints involving animals and juveniles rose more dramatically.
Animal complaints were up by 22 percent, juvenile issues by 10 percent and burglaries by 1 percent, according to the report.
The report went into detail about how many home invasions and suspects arrested for home invasions in the past several years.
In 2012, there were 884 home invasions with 62 arrests; in 2011, 872 home invasions with 81 arrests; in 2010, 941 home invasions with 78 arrests; and in 2009, there were 1,038 home invasions with 55 arrests.
The report also included numbers of 911 calls through the county. As indicated in the report, these numbers do not include thousands of non-emergency calls that each center responds to.
Washtenaw Metro Dispatch took 151,590 911 calls, while Pittsfield Township dispatch had 14,804; EMU, 2,461; Chelsea, 696; Saline, 680; and Milan, 439.
The city of Ann Arbor began contracting with metro dispatch in July. Before that, between January and July, Ann Arbor dispatch handled 23,177 911 calls.
There were downward trends in 2012, with significantly fewer car thefts and robberies, according to the report.
Vehicle thefts were down by 24 percent, robberies by 14 percent, drug violations by 4 percent, larcenies by 1 percent and assaults by 1 percent.
Traffic accidents also were highlighted in the report.
The sheriff’s office investigated 2,703 crashes in 2012. Of those, there were 2,110 property damage crashes and 586 injury crashes. Seven of the accidents involved a fatality, according to the report.
The report states that the top ten crash intersections were: East Ellsworth and South Hewitt; Jackson and South Zeeb; Huron Street and South Huron River Drive; Grove Street and Rawsonville; Golfside and Washtenaw; North Hewitt and Washtenaw; South Hewitt and West Michigan Avenue; Geddes and North Dixboro; Textile and Whittaker and East Michigan Avenue and Harris Court.
The sheriff’s office covers Ann Arbor Township, Dexter Township, Dexter Village, Lodi Township, Salem Township, Scio Township, Superior Township, Webster Township, Manchester Village, York Township and Ypsilanti Township.
John Counts covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at johncounts@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
John Counts
Wed, Jun 19, 2013 : 12:24 p.m.
The information comes from this report: https://edit.ewashtenaw.org/government/sheriff/media-1/files-for-public/2012-community-report. "Calls for service" probably isn't the accurate term. It should have read "911 calls." This has been changed.
SW40
Tue, Jun 18, 2013 : 4:49 p.m.
You don't have to print this response, just realize for some agencies you printed reports taken in stead of calls for service.. Please fix the article. There is a difference between calls for service and reports written. Obviously police agencies take far more calls for service than reports.
SW40
Tue, Jun 18, 2013 : 4:46 p.m.
John, Some of your numbers are inaccurate, I've seen the statistics and I don't know where you got those numbers but please check with the appropriate agencies and stop printing statistics that are not correct. Specifically, your statistics for calls for service are way off for a few of the communities you listed. I mean way off. Thanks.....
JRW
Tue, Jun 18, 2013 : 3:42 p.m.
From what I've read, most home invasions and theft are about getting drug money. A lot of the crime in this country could be decreased if drug laws were changed.
greener_tea
Tue, Jun 18, 2013 : 9:25 p.m.
I reported a theft from a car a few years ago and the police were open about not pursuing the case. They wrote a report for insurance and said there was nothing else they could do. When I asked them about similar thefts in the neighborhood they repeated there was nothing else they could do. The police seemed surprised that I expected them to care about it. This was Ann Arbor Police. It certainly seemed low priority...or no priority. I don't know what their policy is...perhaps it changes from neighborhood to neighborhood.
vivian
Tue, Jun 18, 2013 : 12:15 p.m.
Doesn't it seem that the number of arrests for home invasions is awfully small in comparison to the number of home invasions that were reported? I know that some suspects committed a number of the crimes, but it sounds as though we must have a lot of housebreakers running around loose out there...what do the police have to say about that? Should we be concerned?
you can't handle the truth
Fri, Jun 21, 2013 : 5:03 p.m.
I was one of the 941 home invasion 3 years ago. Ann Arbor police really made no effort at an investigation at all. And getting them to put less than 10 stolen items on a police report with rather small value for me to send to my insurance company was a real fiasco. That was one of the main motivators to get out of Ann Arbor and Wastenaw County.
JRW
Tue, Jun 18, 2013 : 3:41 p.m.
bbb writes: "The police can come to write a report to submit to the insurance company, but unless the criminal is caught in the act or someone is hurt, no investigation is really going to happen." Is that accurate?
bbb
Tue, Jun 18, 2013 : 3:23 p.m.
I'm concerned about it, though it seems home invasions are going to typically be difficult crimes to solve most of the time without investing significant resources. Property crimes tend to be low priority, though in the case of home invasion it can quickly escalate to more than a property crime. The police can come to write a report to submit to the insurance company, but unless the criminal is caught in the act or someone is hurt, no investigation is really going to happen.