City's crime statistics fall for first half of year

By REBECCA CATALANELLO, Times Staff Writer
Published November 7, 2007

TAMPA - Crime in Tampa continues to dip, according to statistics examining the first half of 2007.

Major crime in the city dropped 8.6 percent compared with the first part of 2006, according to a semiannual report released Tuesday.

That statistic represents the overall change in the numbers of murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglary, larcenies and vehicle thefts.

Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis chalked up the continued progress to the strength of community policing strategies implemented since Chief Stephen Hogue took the reins in 2003.

"Police aren't call takers," Davis said. "They're problem solvers."

Aggravated assaults were down 32.8 percent, the greatest decline in any single crime group during the months examined, according to the report.

Murders, meanwhile, were up. Four more peopled died in homicides during the first part of 2007 compared with 2006.

Davis said that murders aren't a reliable indicator of a city's crime rate, as many homicides are domestic or drug-related.

"That's not something you can predict," she said.

Other findings reported:

-Sexual batteries dropped by 12.5 percent, with 96 during the same time period last year and 84 so far this year.

-Robberies were up 2 percent, from 579 in 2006 to 591 this year.

-Burglary was down 6.1 percent.

-There were 209 fewer vehicle thefts this year compared with last, a decrease of 16.6 percent.

Davis said police consult crime statistics daily to determine where units need to focus their attention.

"If you don't analyze everything on a daily basis," she said, "how are you going to know how to prevent crime?"

[Last modified November 7, 2007, 00:45:52]