Madison experiences decrease in crime for 2016 - Northside Sun

Crime was down in Madison this past year. In 2016, the city experienced a total of 290 counts of criminal activity. The year prior, the city had 341 counts.

Although some criminal activities were slightly higher in 2016 than in 2015, the city experienced a major decrease in counts of shoplifting.

“Stores are prosecuting more,” said Capt. Kevin Newman of the Madison Police Department. “There’s really no way of telling what’s actually making the numbers drop, but over the past couple of years, we’ve seen shops prosecuting perpetrators more.”

In 2016, the city experienced only 47 counts of shoplifting, compared to 124 counts in 2015.

Shoplifting is one of three types of theft, with the other two being grand and petit larceny.

Between 2015 and 2016, counts of grand larceny had increased from 22 to 26. Petit larceny also increased from 81 counts to 102.

“Larcenies involve items taken from peoples’ vehicles,” said Newman. “We recently went on a public relations campaign to get people to lock their cars, and we think that had a positive effect on those numbers. We still recommend people to lock their cars and don’t leave valuables in plain view or in the car at all if possible.”

In 2016, total counts of theft added up to 175. In 2015, the city had 227 counts of theft.

Residential and business burglaries remained relatively the same between 2015 and 2016. The city had 10 counts of residential burglaries in 2015 and 12 counts in 2016.

There were two counts of business burglaries for each year.

“We’ve had a proactive patrol program in place for several years,” said Newman. “We encourage officers to get out of cars and go in businesses. When patrolling residential areas, we ask them to interact with people in neighborhoods and get out of their cars to show they’re available and to serve as a deterrence for possible perpetrators.”

Counts of murder and rape stayed low in 2016. In 2015, the city experienced zero counts of murder and one count of rape. This past year, the city had zero counts for both activities.

“It’s usually not an incident with a stranger,” said Newman. “Or it’s a statutory case with an age difference problem. We usually have one or two a year, and it’s usually not a random type of crime.”

In 2016, the city had a decrease in assaults as well, with 88 counts for the year compared to 95 counts in 2015. Seventy-eight counts in 2016 were simple (not aggravated) and 10 were weapon (aggravated) assaults.

“The total number for assaults is always high,” said Newman. “Generally, those are cases where the victim and perpetrator know each other. It’s not random. A lot involve domestic disputes.”

In 2015, 77 of the 95 assault counts were not aggravated, while the other 18 were aggravated assaults.

There were four counts of robbery this past year, three more than in 2015.

“A couple of months ago, we had a serial robber that was hitting several jurisdictions, and an arrest was made. There are three counts, but it was just one person.”

The number of auto burglaries increased as well. In 2015, the city had five counts of auto thefts. That number increased to nine this past year.

“There may have been one or two with cars just stolen with no idea what happened to them,” said Newman. “Most auto theft cases involve someone the victim knows borrowing the car and they don’t bring it back… A lot of times you see drugs involved in those kinds of things.”

During 2016, much of the crime happened within the first three months of the year. Another spike occurred within the months of July, August and September.

In 2015, much of the crime spiked in the second and fourth quarters of the year.

“It’s luck of the draw for what quarter most of the crime happens in,” said Newman. “It changes from year to year.”

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