Has Crime in Skokie Gone Up or Down?

if they believe violent crime in Skokie has "gone up, down or stayed the same?"

It turns out that readers have a much different view of crime in Skokie than what the police department's statistics show.

More than 170 people responded to our poll, with 161 — or 91 percent — stating they believe violent crime in Skokie has gone up. Only seven people voted that crime has gone down and another 10 said it has stayed the same.

The poll ran alongside an article about two armed robberies — — in two days.

These opinions are in stark contrast to data that the Skokie Police Department keeps, which show that crime is down. The data given to Skokie Patch is the latest available, and compares nine months of crime starting from Sept. 2010 against the same period in 2011.

The department's annual police report, which shows crime statistics for the entire year, will be due in February or March of 2012, police said. Overall, however, Skokie has seen a steady decline in criminal activity since 2007, according to police data.

The information shows that robberies in 2011 are down 36 percent when compared to the first nine months of 2010 (from 45 to 29). Crime overall is down 8 percent, according to the data.

The report also indicated that burglaries are down 7 percent, as are sex offenses, which are down 11 percent, and simple assault/battery, which is down 4 percent.

"I think it's a combination of things," said Police Chief Anthony Scarpelli in regards to the lower numbers this year. "I think we've put together a few new strategies that we rolled out in the past six or seven months; we're effective in reducing crime."

Crimes such as homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, battery, burglary and theft are down through the first nine months of 2011, from a total of 3,187 last year to 2,972 this year.

Scarpelli, who was promoted to police chief in May of last year, attributed the current decline to a renewed effort in crime prevention, such as neighborhood block watches and community outreach.

"There was just an incident a couple of weeks ago when a resident saw a suspicious car driving around and [were entering] vehicles in the Laramie [Avenue] and Lee [Street] area," the police chief said. "[He called 911] and we were able to stop the suspects — who had stolen items in their possession — and make the arrests."

The numbers - 

• DUI arrests are down 21 percent
• The number of vehicles burglarized is up 23 percent
• Motor vehicle thefts are down 10 percent
• Narcotic arrests are up 2 percent
• Residential burglaries are down about 24 percent, from 159 last year to 120 in 2011.
• Garage burglaries are up 35 percent, from 50 last year to 76 in 2011.

Motorists were also given less written warnings: 6,079 last year compared to 3,624 in 2011 — a decrease of about 40 percent. There were also fewer traffic citations reported, 18,429 in 2010 compared to 14,535 in 2011, or a decrease of about 22 percent.

While the data excludes three months of statistics, Scarpelli is confident the final results will reflect the current trend of a decrease in crime.

"The least predictable is crashes," Scarpelli said. "I'm optimistic the statistics will remain relatively similar, the bulk of the year is done."

For more details on the report, click on the PDF images next to the article.

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