Chief Eric Christensen and the men and women of the Lafayette police department chalked up a peak year for law enforcement in the city last year – reporting a 19 percent reduction in reported crimes from the prior year.
All things considered, Christensen reports, 2014 saw the lowest number of crimes in more than a decade, with a 29 percent reduction in violent crime and an 18 percent reduction in property crimes. The city’s police force also reported significant reductions in residential burglaries, auto burglaries and stolen vehicles.
Christensen attributes the win to strategic planning and wise use of available personnel.
“These reductions were accompanied by significant increase in the number of cases that were solved by our officers and investigators,” Christensen wrote. “Many of these reductions are the result of crime prevention strategies employed by the members of our community and the police department.”
Although 2014 saw four armed robberies in the city – a 50 percent spike from the previous year – police solved every case, with Christensen crediting the work of his detectives as well as other police agencies in helping to clear those cases.
Police logged 48 residential burglaries in Lafayette last year, a 21 percent reduction from 2013 and the lowest number of residential burglaries in the city in more than ten years. A mid-year review determined that only 27 percent of the residential burglaries so far in the year had involved a residence with an unlocked window or door. By year’s end, that number had risen to 46 percent and police were attempting to further educate residents about the wisdom of locking their doors and windows.
Christensen credits the combined effect of citizen involvement, use of home surveillance systems and high profile patrol efforts for helping keep crime numbers low.
