Area crime rates drop

By Kim Sloan

A decrease in crime in Whitfield County, Dalton and Murray County over the past five months while the economy has soured has law enforcement officials scratching their heads.

District Attorney Kermit McManus calls it an aberration.

Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker says it may be the “low point of an ebb.”

Maj. John Gibson with the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office said, “It’s hard to put a finger on it.”

Statistics from the Dalton Police Department, Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office, Whitfield County Jail and the Murray County Sheriff’s Office from the first five months show the decrease.

In Dalton, Part One crimes as defined by the FBI — homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson — were down for the period from January to May, with 678 reported this year in those categories compared to 827 in 2007 during the first five months. There were 108 burglaries during the first five months of 2007 compared to 95 during the same time period this year. Aggravated assaults decreased from 62 to 44.

During the first five months of 2008, the sheriff’s office also showed a decrease in burglaries when compared to the same period of 2007 — from 217 to 155. Thefts dropped from 572 to 461. Aggravated assaults were up slightly, from 90 in 2007 to 92 in 2008.

The number of crimes has decreased in Murray County in several categories as well. For example, burglaries were down from 103 in 2007 to 76 during the first five months of 2008. Thefts were down from 257 to 228. Criminal damage to property cases were down from 105 to 91.

“It’s hard to say it’s one particular thing,” Gibson with the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office said. “I think the gang task force has had a tremendous impact on the crime rate. We have an outstanding drug unit that works with other narcotics and drug units. I think we have some of the best communications in this part of the country that we have ever had. We have more access to information.”

The Conasauga Safe Streets Task Force was formed in 2005 to investigate violent crimes, including gang activity. The Task Force consists of officers from the FBI, Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office, the Dalton Police Department and the Calhoun Police Department.

Publicity about the 287(g) program, which has been in place at the Whitfield County Jail for about a month, may also be having an effect, Gibson said. When a suspect is booked into the jail, his or her information such as name, date of birth and Social Security number are run through the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database. If ICE information indicates the suspect is in the country illegally, the suspect will be booked into the ICE system and a hold will be placed.

“The message was out there long before the system was in place,” Gibson said. “The chances of deportation are 100 percent better than they were before.”

After the shooting death of Dalton High School student Andre Johnson on Memorial Day of last year, the Dalton Police Department began “Operation Able,” which put as many as 27 officers on the street during “peak times” and shifted manpower to “hot spots” such as Morris Street, Parker said in a recent report to the Dalton Public Safety Commission.

Jail population drops

On May 13, 2006, the jail population was 505 and officials were looking at the possibility of building a third pod to house additional inmates.

During the first five months of 2008, the average was 377 a day, down from an average of 435 inmates a day for the first five months of 2007.

In Murray County, an average of 9.74 inmates a day were booked during the first five months of 2007. That number decreased to 7.66 during the same time period this year.

Gibson said an ankle monitoring system may be one reason the Whitfield County jail population is down. In August 2006 the county entered into an agreement with Georgia Probation Services to monitor some people convicted of a crime with an electronic ankle bracelet.

McManus said 36 people are currently being monitored on ankle bracelets and about 30 are in Whitfield County (the others are in Murray County). As many as 80 or 90 people have been on the monitors at one time, he said.

“Anyone we put on an ankle monitor in Superior Court, we would have put in jail,” McManus said.

Officials admit it is strange to see crime rates low when gas prices are near $4 and some jobs are being lost.

“It’s the small, petty crimes like gas drive-offs and shoplifting we usually see in a bad economy,” Gibson said. “We have not seen that yet.”

Gibson, a 30-year veteran of law enforcement, said even in the 1970s when there was a downturn in the economy, Dalton did not seem to be affected with higher crime rates.

“When the rest of the country was in a funk, Dalton was thriving in the late 1970s and the bad economy wasn’t much of an impact to this community,” Gibson said.

But law enforcement officials do not expect things to stay the same.

“My fear is we may be on the low point of this ebb,” Parker told the Public Safety Commission. “With the economic stress, we may see an increase in property crimes.”

In recent years, the area’s population has grown. From 2000 to 2006, the population of the Dalton statistical area, which includes Whitfield and Murray counties, grew 11.9 percent, from 120,061 to 134,397, according to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Growth is good but crime is a byproduct of growth,” McManus said. “It’s wonderful and we’re enjoying it (the decrease in crime) but it’s not going to stay.”