Fairburn cites 2005 crime stats

For Fairburn cops and the community it was a pretty good year.

Though experiencing continued record growth at nearly 10 percent during 2005, incidents of crime rose only slightly. Calculated at a 3.88 percent increase, serious crimes are actually on the decline from recent years.

“Part 1 crimes rose by 3.88 percent in 2005. This is the smallest increase in three years,” said Chief Charles Long. “In actual numbers this is an increase of 25 crimes. The year to date numbers for 2005 effectively end the double digit increases of 14 percent in 2003 and 18 percent in 2004.”

Part 1 crimes include aggravated assault, rape, murder, robbery, arson, auto theft, theft and burglary. During 2005, Fairburn had 669 Part 1 crimes reported compared to 644 in 2004. Burglaries for the year increased 29 percent, though a significant number of those were solved recently after investigators linked 18 burglaries to a dozen juvenile offenders. Incidents of aggravated assaults were down 33 percent while robberies increased 64 percent. Thefts decreased by three percent and auto thefts increased seven percent. there were no homicides in 2005. Also figured in crime stats are gasoline drive-offs, which accounted for 21 percent Part 1 crimes.

“There were seven more robberies in 2005 than in 2004 and 33 additional burglaries in 2005,” said Long. “The final month of the year reflected a 50 percent decrease in burglaries from the 22 posted in November. We attribute this decrease to arrests made last month.”

Another area of the 2005 report applied to arrests. Long reported that criminal charges filed against suspect were up 33 percent over 2004, with 711 criminal charges filed in 2005 compared to 533 in 2004. Also on the increase were drug-related arrests. Sixty four arrests in 2005 compared to 48 in 2004 represent a 33 percent increase, he said.

Statistics on traffic accidents and traffic charges were also a part of the year end totals. Long said traffic charges increased 12 in 2005 compared to a 60 percent decrease in 2004. and increasing along with Fairburn’s population were the number of traffic accidents.

“The city’s population increased by approximately 10 percent in 2005. This has had very little impact on our crime rate this past year but may have some relationship with an increase in traffic crashes,” said Long. “Crashes in the city were up by 32 percent, with 469 crashes reported in 2005 compared to 354 in 2004.”

Long said the top seven identified traffic accident area posted an increase of 15 percent.
“This increase is less than half compared to the citywide increase, where 48 percent of all crashes occurred at or near these seven location in 2004 as compared to 42 percent in 2005,” he said.

Five of the seven high accident areas are found along Ga. Highway 74, with the remaining two located at Roosevelt Highway and Hudson Plaza and east of that location at Roosevelt and Ga. Highway 138.

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