While crime rates in Milwaukee County communities have increased over the past year, Marquette’s numbers are down.
There were 3,468 robbery cases in Milwaukee County in 2002, compared with 3,182 in 2001, according to the Wisconsin Crime and Arrests 2002 Report.
Of the robberies in the county, 3,197 occurred in the city of Milwaukee, an increase of 10 percent from 2001’s 2,913.
Crimes specific to the city of Milwaukee increased by 1 percent during the year; 46,781 incidents were reported to the Milwaukee Police Department in 2002, up about 100 from the previous year.
Of the crimes recorded in 2002, 88 percent were property crimes (burglary, theft, auto theft and larceny) and 12 percent were violent crimes against persons, with robbery accounting for more than half of those violent crimes, according to the report issued by the state Office of Justice Assistance.
Joan Dimow, a research analyst for the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, said she considers the weakened national economy as one of the factors fueling the increase in robberies and theft.
“A crime such as robbery tends to fluctuate with the economy,” Dimow said. “When the economy goes down, people are out of jobs and may not have a steady income, they become desperate.”
Crime rates in communities surrounding Milwaukee also increased noticed significantly.
Robberies in the city of Franklin, about 20 miles from Marquette, jumped from just one in 2001 to seven in 2002 – an increase of 600 percent.
Kenneth Bohn, Franklin’s chief of police, said the city’s small size makes the change seem more severe than it actually is.
“When you deal with such small numbers as we do, one or two crimes can give a very drastic increase in crime rates,” he said.
Bohn attributed the jump in robberies to the expansion of the city. The population increase and the influx of new businesses have provided more opportunities for crimes to be committed.
Police in Glendale, a northern suburb of Milwaukee, witnessed a 26 percent jump in the number of city robberies. There were 29 in 2002, compared with 23 the year before.
“Considering the number of businesses we have and all the transit traffic that goes through the city, our rates are still pretty low compared to city and national levels,” said Joel Dhein, the crime prevention officer for the Glendale Police Department.
Dhein said the department was more concerned with the increase in domestic dispute cases. The county’s overall violent crime rate increased by 5.5 percent between 2001 and 2002. Dhein attributed the increase to more squabbles between family members.
“It seemed like families didn’t get along as well this year,” he said. “It’s harder to pinpoint a reason for those increases because there are sometimes multiple reports of the same incident coming from different family members.”
Other cities within the county saw their numbers change as well.
Robbery rates in West Allis and Wauwatosa, two of the county’s larger municipalities, increased by 8 percent and 3 percent respectively.
Retail, property and identity thefts in Fox Point led to a 25 percent increase in the village’s crime rates.
Despite these significant increases in Milwaukee County crime rates, Department of Public Safety Capt. Russ Shaw said criminal activity at Marquette and in the surrounding community has declined.
Between January and October 2002, five armed robberies were reported near the university. During the same period in 2003, there were only four.
“The good thing is that out of the four armed robberies we had, we made two apprehensions along with the (Milwaukee Police Department),” Shaw said. “So we’ve gotten two of those suspects off the street.
“If you look at things in comparison, year to year, we’re looking at a (general) decrease in crimes in our areas.”
The Wisconsin Crime and Arrests report is compiled each year based on statistics provided by each police department within the county and collected by the Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
The statistics on crime in the Milwaukee area are taken from monthly crime summaries generated by MPD.