Contributed by the City of Kalamazoo
KALAMAZOO (MICH.)-  For the second consecutive year, serious crimes reported in the City of Kalamazoo declined in 2011, capping a 23 percent reduction since 2007.
KDPS Chief Jeff Hadley said he believes there’s no single key to Kalamazoo’s declining crime numbers, but collaborative efforts in the community between residents, youth, businesses, faith-based organizations and KDPS contributed to this outcome. But drugs remain an element in most criminal cases, he added.

Like Kalamazoo, preliminary FBI figures show slightly lower crime statistics nationwide.

“Kalamazoo’s data represents real people, 1,222 fewer victims who didn’t have their lives impacted in all the ways associated with being the victim of a crime,” Hadley said. “This economic downturn is different from some others because we see more middle-class people out of work and at home now. Just because you lose a job doesn’t mean you turn to a life of
crime.”

Hadley said more people watching activity in their neighborhoods is one reason for the crime decline.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” Hadley said. “Involvement of the residents in their neighborhoods, taking ownership of what goes on there, more anti-theft deterrents in cars, and
more focused police work, all those things have an impact.”

Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (KDPS) statistics reported to the FBI show officers here handled 4,110 serious crime cases in 2011, compared to 4,234 in 2010 and 5,332
in 2007. The number of crime reports was down in six of eight categories of Part 1 felony incidents, with only auto thefts and burglaries showing slight upticks in 2011.

Overall, KDPS investigated 1,222 fewer serious crimes in 2011 than officers did in 2007.

Categories considered Part 1 crimes by the FBI include homicide, arson, rape, robbery, auto theft, assault, burglary and larceny.
The department had a 2.5 percent decline in total calls-for-service last year. Those include everything fielded by dispatchers including emergency medical requests to fire alarms to officers logging in traffic stops. There were 88,395 calls for service in 2011, compared to 90,698 in 2010 and 93,555 in 2007.

Kalamazoo had five homicides in 2011, compared to 9 in 2010; none involved minors. The department investigated 74 rapes, down four from 2010; 167 robberies or thefts involving force, compared to 185 in 2010; and 380 assaults, 29 fewer than the year before.

Larceny, where theft does not involve use of force, was down from 2,339 in 2010 to 2,186 reports in 2011. And despite record numbers of homes and buildings left vacant and vulnerable to vandalism due to foreclosures, there were 28 arsons reported in 2011, nearly half the number in 2007. Kalamazoo had 35 arsons reported in 2010.

Auto thefts were up from 161 in 2010 to 172 last year. However, that trend has been going down since 315 vehicles were reported stolen in the city in 2007.
Burglary reports also were up in 2011 at 1,098, compared to 1,018 in 2010. Burglary is a theft that occurs in conjunction with illegal entry into a residence or business.