GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – New quarterly statistics from the Green Bay Police Department show that violent crime is down in the city compared to last year during the same time period.
Chief Andrew Smith says the total violent crime picture, which include murders, sexual assaults, robberies, and aggravated assaults are down 30% across the board.
“Last year we had a series of aggravated assaults where is seemed like it was back and forth or shooting people over low level narcotics disputes…20 bucks worth of marijuana gets you shot. We haven’t seen anything like that this year and we’re all really thankful.”
Smith says there are many contributing factors to lower crime numbers, including hard working cops and with help from the community.
“The good ideas here come from mostly the street level officers who are out there working, who are looking at something and think, you know what, we can do better on it. I also get a lot of good ideas from members of our community who make suggestion on how we can change people’s mindset or the way people operate here to prevent crimes,” said Smith.
The department also looks at best practices from across the country to see what’s working and what’s not in other cities.
Besides violent crimes being down, property crimes are also down 8% over all.
All thefts were down too, expect for one area. Theft from auto rose 60% from 62 incidents in 2016 to 99 in 2017 during the same time period.
Chief Smith says this is one of the most preventable crimes.
“You have to lock your doors. We have people walking the streets and they’re testing 30, 40 car doors in a row trying to find one that’s open. If they find the open one and if it’s your car, they’re going to climb into your car, they’re going to go through your glove box and take whatever you got,” said Smith. “This is still a good sized city. There’s still crime out there and there are still people who will take the opportunity to steal from you if you let them.”
Smith says the key to keeping crime low is diligent officers and a community that’s engaged.
