2010 numbers of Part 1 crimes decrease by almost a quarter

MURPHY (January 10, 2011) Due in large part to a greater emphasis on building trust-based relationships with community organizations, homeowner associations and citizen action groups, the Murphy Police Department is reporting a second year of significantly reduced crime in the eight categories labeled by the law enforcement agencies as the most serious, according to Murphy Chief of Police G.M. Cox. The drop in these crime categories, called Part 1 offenses, from 2009 to 2010 was just under 24 percent. Those same categories showed a drop of over 15 percent from 2008 to 2009. The eight crimes listed in Part 1, as determined by law enforcement agencies nationwide, include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson. For 2010, these crimes totaled 119 versus 156 in 2009 and 184 in 2008.

“The 2010 drop of 23.72 percent is significant, and shows that Murphy residents are joining hands with
police officers in doing what’s necessary to keep crime out of Murphy,” said the Chief. “Taken with the drop the previous year, we’ve seen a two-year decrease in Part 1 offenses of 35.33 percent. That’s a testament to our outreach efforts and to the level of trust that Murphy’s citizens are placing with our police officers,” he added.

That is borne out in the Calls for Service category, where there was a 26 percent increase from 2009 to 2010.
“We’re getting calls and responding to calls, setting a firm foundation of confidence in our officers by the residents,” he said. That trust and confidence has been steadily growing since 2006, the first year that Murphy began keeping these statistics. Since 2006, the Calls for Service increase by a noteworthy 113 percent.

While Citizen Calls, a different but similarly important statistical category, saw a slight decrease from 2009 to 2010, the 2010 total still greatly overshadowed the 2006 total by over 400 percent. At the same time, 9-1-1 calls fell almost 32 percent from 2006 to 2010. That demonstrates that Murphy residents are making appropriate use both 9-1-1 and the non-emergency police phone number.

 “We have an educated, sophisticated population, and this is displayed by the proper use of both emergency and non-emergency numbers. That makes us far more efficient in doing our job,” said the Chief. Another area of inefficiency also dropped in 2010 – responses to false alarms at homes and businesses. The number of alarms was cut by almost 17 percent from 2009. “Estimating that each alarm call takes an average of two officers about 15 minutes each to respond, the lower number saved us over 86 man-hours over the course of the year. That’s 86 more hours spent on patrol or responding to legitimate calls,” he said.

Increases in residential move-ins and greater commercial activity resulted in higher traffic and about a 20 percent increase in both traffic stops and citations in 2010 over 2009. More cars on the roads of the city also meant a slight increase in traffic accidents reported. Accidents rose by almost three percent.
“Traffic accidents are a part of life, but the relatively slight increase pales in comparison to the vast jump in the number of cars on FM 544, North Murphy Road, McCreary Road and Betsy Road, all of which report a large increase in raw numbers of cars,” he added.

Not all is good news, however, as an alarming rise in the number of family violence related calls went up 60 percent from 2009 to 2010. The 32 calls in 2010 is not a statistically large number in a city the size of Murphy, but it is still worrisome to the Police Department.
“We will continue to explore methods and tactics to implement that will reduce this number and reverse the trend. We hosted several public awareness meetings targeting diverse groups. And while we were disappointed with the turnout, we will nevertheless continue to seek ways to have a positive impact on reducing this area,” he said.
“I give full credit to the men and women of the Murphy Police Department, sworn and non-sworn, and the many volunteers, for the outstanding reduction in Part 1 offenses. That’s an important marker for us, and we want to continue in that direction. These people are extremely motivated and highly focused on their roles as public safety professionals and service providers, and I’m proud to count them as colleagues,” concluded the Chief.