Although reports of crime in the southwest suburbs and Will County remained flat last year, some rapidly growing communities bucked the conventional wisdom that increases in property crime go hand-in-hand with rapid development, according to the latest state crime report.
Several communities that have grown rapidly reported fewer thefts or little change in the number of property crimes compared with 1999, according to Crime in Illinois 2000, compiled by the Illinois State Police.
Lockport, for example, grew from 9,000 residents to more than 15,000 in the last decade, yet thefts reported there have declined three years in a row. Although 390 were reported in 1998, the figure dipped to 339 in 1999 and 314 last year.
New Lenox, which also has ballooned in recent years, saw theft reports decline to 231 in 2000, from 261 in 1999.
Suburban officials who saw declines in thefts in their towns last year said they were pleased, but they were reluctant to call the dip a trend.
“It’s nice to see, but the statistics vary from year to year,” said Tinley Park Trustee Matthew Heffernan, chairman of the village’s public safety committee. “The key is in crime prevention.”
Tinley Park’s population of 48,401 has grown by 30 percent in the last decade, yet the number of thefts reported there also declined last year. The community reported 1,090 thefts in 2000, down from 1,275 in 1999. Yet this was more than in 1998, when 813 thefts were reported in the village.
The state police’s annual report presents eight serious crimes: murder, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson. For the first time, the report does not compare crime rates, a per-capita figure based on population, between last year and 1999. State police officials said newly released census figures showed the 1999 population estimates were unreliable.
Nevertheless, the raw numbers of crimes reported by each police agency are not in question, state police spokesman Capt. Dave Sanders said.
Some communities reported theft numbers that are more in line with what one might expect amid residential and commercial growth.
Orland Park, a rapidly growing suburb of 51,000 people and one of the state’s largest generators of sales tax revenue, reported an increase to 1,099 thefts last year, up from 955 in 1999. Although Orland Park has few violent crimes, increases in the crime rate due to thefts are par for the course in towns where homes and stores are constantly being built, police say.
Frankfort, Mokena and Plainfield reported small increases in thefts. Each also saw population growth of more than 40 percent in the last decade.
Crestwood has large drop
In Crestwood, which has a stable population, a large drop in crime seemed difficult to explain. The south suburb, next to Blue Island and Robbins, reported a drop in crime from 149 in 1999 to 73 in 2000.
Although Crestwood Mayor Chester Stranzek said his police force pays more attention to patrolling neighborhoods and shopping center than to traffic stops, the department did not make any radical policy changes in the last year. Village Services Director Frank Gassmere said the village has not changed its method of reporting crime.
Lockport Police Chief James Antole said that a few years ago, his community attributed a rise in thefts to stealing of tools and building materials at construction sites as several subdivisions were developed. But thefts declined as people moved into the new houses and police stepped up patrols of building sites, Antole said.
“All in all, crime in general in Lockport has been pretty good,” Antole said, who said increased neighborhood patrols have helped curb thefts. “I guess we’re getting pretty lucky.”
Will County numbers
In Will County, most categories of crime declined or remained flat between 1999 and 2000.
In Joliet, a city that has exploded in population through annexation of newly developed subdivisions, murders increased from 10 in 1999 to 13 last year, according to State Police data. But there were fewer reported criminal sexual assaults, and reported thefts declined by nearly 6 percent.
In Will County, most violent crime was reported in Joliet, including 13 of 19 of the county’s murders and 213 of the 323 robberies.
Joliet Police Chief David Gerdes said such numbers must be considered over more than a year’s time to show significant trends. The city has seen a large reduction in violence in recent years, he said.
“Going back a decade, we were consistently in the 20s,” he said about the number of murders.
Crime priorities in Joliet vary widely, from the urban problems of downtown and the east side to the suburban problems of newer neighborhoods on the west side, Gerdes said.
“In some neighborhoods, the most serious problem is drive-by shootings. In other neighborhoods, it’s people rolling through stop signs,” he said.
Overall, Gerdes said the department handles more traffic complaints than another other crime.
No report for Ford Heights
The State Police report did not receive any crime figures for Ford Heights, an impoverished and crime-plagued community between Chicago Heights and the Indiana border. Ford Heights Police Chief Percy Coleman could not be reached for comment.
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