Aurora – Most major crimes in Aurora are down so far this year compared with the same time period last year, police said Thursday.
Crime fell in five out of seven categories, and some crimes fell at least 20 percent, including homicides, rapes and vehicle thefts.
“I don’t want to make too big of a deal of it, because they may go back up again, but we’re excited,” said Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates. “(Crime reduction) is a very important priority for me.”
The Police Department, which tracked major crimes from January through June, said there were 12 homicides in Aurora during that time, down from 15 last year. There were 98 reported rapes this year. In 2005, there were 133 during the same time. This year, there have been 1,083 vehicle thefts, compared with 1,450 last year.
On the rise, however, are robberies (317 this year, up by nine) and aggravated assaults (540 so far this year and 517 last year to date).
Oates, who has been on the job seven months, credits the drop in many categories to an increased focus on preventive policing, such as sending officers into the community to provide businesses and residents with tips on how to protect themselves.
The department has also placed a higher priority on arresting fugitives, who tend to commit more crimes while they are on the run. A new team assembled in April to track down fugitives has made more than 150 arrests.
“I think they’ve had a significant effect in helping us cut down on violent crime,” Oates said. “They’ve really responded to my emphasis on crime reduction.”
Aurora resident Ron Hale said he feels safer in Aurora than he used to, although he still carries a gun when he has to go to a bad part of town.
The town still has problems, he said. Hale owns some condominium complexes that were broken into a few months ago, and the safety tips that police gave him afterward were not very helpful, he said.
“It’s ‘keep the lights on at night, make sure the windows are closed’ – nothing really that you didn’t know already,” said Hale, while having a cold beer at the Wolf Motor Inn bar on East Colfax Avenue.
Staff writer Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer can be reached at 303-820-1316 or awittmeyer@denverpost.com.
