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Crime down in rural areas
By Ken Kosky
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
VALPARAISO | Crime dropped about 9 percent throughout
unincorporated Porter County last year, a fact that
Porter County Sheriff David Lain believes is due to
officers focusing on small problems so they don't grow
into big problems. "Nationally, crime has been
trending upward a little bit after the decline of
several years," Lain said. Helping to keep crime
low was a big drop in thefts, something Lain said is
partly due to gas stations turning to prepay pumps to
prevent gasoline thefts. Thefts and batteries
decreased, and robberies stayed the same, according to a
recent report. Rapes, burglaries and vehicle thefts
increased. The report showed there was one
homicide last year -- the June beating death of a
15-year-old South Haven boy. Police arrested a
20-year-old South Haven man and said he beat the teen
over a girl. The previous year, there were no homicides.
The crime statistics are for the unincorporated parts of
the county served by the Sheriff's Department -- rural
areas and subdivisions such as South Haven, The Pines
and Shorewood Forest. Lain said the county's
officers pay attention to small details. And when a
large crime happens, police assign a team to it.
Lain, who took over as sheriff last year, rolled out
some programs that were successful, including a traffic
enforcement division and drug interdiction.
Unfortunately, manpower concerns downsized the plan to
focus on traffic complaints. This year, Lain is
looking to expand drug investigation efforts and to
continue the department's focus on keeping the county
safe. |
