PURVIS – (AP) According to the latest statistics, murder was up in Lamar County in 2011, but the amount of rapes dropped sharply.
There were four murders in the county in 2011 – the most in at least four years.
But the number of forcible rapes, another of the most violent crimes, fell from 23 in 2010 to eight in 2011.
Larcenies dropped by 16.5 percent and motor vehicle thefts declined 60.7 percent, with just 11 incidents recorded in 2011.
Armed robberies doubled to a dozen, however. But the American reported on Saturday that incidents of domestic violence remained constant.
“I don’t want to say that these are in the realm of acceptability because you’re never satisfied, but they are not extravagant numbers,” Sheriff Danny Rigel said.
“In terms of the size of our county and compared to other counties, we’ve still got a great living standard. It’s a great place to live.”
The statistics were pulled by the Lamar County Sheriff Department from the Uniform Crime Report that is sent monthly to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI solicits the voluntary submission of stats from law enforcement agencies across the country to piece together a national portrait of criminal behavior.
For Rigel and his staff, those statistics are pored over on a weekly basis as an aid of where the department’s resources would best be focused.
“We look at the statistics, and then consider how do we want deploy directed patrols, how do we want to deploy our people,” Rigel said. “They’re kind of a barometer of where we need to shift focus, so we can be proactive in trying to prevent.”
But some of the most disturbing crimes, like murder, are the most difficult to prevent.
“That part of it, it’s kind of hard to do,” said Joe Bounds, president of the Lamar County Board of Supervisors. “You don’t have anything out front, from that standpoint.”
The sheriff’s department has made arrests in two of the murders. The other two remain under investigation.
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