MONROE - The Green County Sheriff's Department annual report for 2013 shows that violent crime remained at low levels, while the increased frequency of property and Internet crimes in Green County has lead to larger losses of money from citizens.
According to Uniform Crime Reporting data, violent crime in Green County is much lower than the U.S. average. On a scale of one to 100, one being a low occurrence of crime, Green County stands at 29.7 compared to the U.S. average of 41.4. Violent crime includes four offenses: murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Forcible rape stayed the same at one occurrence last year and in 2012, murder stayed at zero, robbery stayed at zero, and aggravated battery went down to 24 instances from 25 in 2012.
Property crime rose by 30 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to Sheriff Mark Rohloff. He said theft of currency and notes only account for about 6 percent of the $316,339 reported stolen last year. Most of the property stolen was salvageable materials such as machinery and tools. This type of property crime is hard to track down and bring relief back to victims since most metallic items are broken down and sold. Recovered property has stayed below $100,000 for the past three years while stolen property has risen from about $200,000 in 2011 to $316,339 last year.
Rohloff's report uses national averages against his data and shows that on a scale of one to 100, property crime is still low at 29.1, compared to the U.S. average of 43.5.
Most of the high-volume statistics reported by the sheriff's office are from minor infractions such as speeding, driving with no proof of insurance, vehicles in the ditch, officers checking welfare and deer vs. vehicle accidents. A lot of calls include many infractions in the same incident, but the report does not distinguish whether a call had multiple offenses or not. Speeding 11 to 15 mph over the limit accounted for 910 reports, no proof of insurance had 266 reports, vehicles in the ditch had 261 reports, check-welfare had 674 reports and deer vs. vehicle accidents totaled 289.
Rohloff wrote in his report that the UCR figures more accurately depict violent crime in the county than a percentage change would due to the very low number of offenses from year to year. Using rape as an example, in 2011 there were no reports, and in 2012 there was one instance of forcible rape. This would reflect a 100 percent change over one year, which is not an accurate representation of the occurrence of rape.
Rohloff said the data shows that Green County is not a high-crime area. Though random acts of violence can occur, most of the reported infractions were motivated by people who know each other.
"(W)e live in a relatively safe place," he said.
Rohloff said he takes UCR data from the statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as in-house statistics. He said the combination gives a broader sense of measurements rather than strictly using the sheriff's department records. He also refrained from gathering data from villages, townships and cities so as not to overcomplicate the data. He said the sheriff's department gathers reports for about 40 percent of the county. By taking only the sheriff's department information, Rohloff said, it can give the public a better understanding of how his department's resources are utilized.
"Basically, I'm trying to let the public know what kind of activities we perform and some statistics to support our activity level," he said.
According to Uniform Crime Reporting data, violent crime in Green County is much lower than the U.S. average. On a scale of one to 100, one being a low occurrence of crime, Green County stands at 29.7 compared to the U.S. average of 41.4. Violent crime includes four offenses: murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Forcible rape stayed the same at one occurrence last year and in 2012, murder stayed at zero, robbery stayed at zero, and aggravated battery went down to 24 instances from 25 in 2012.
Property crime rose by 30 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to Sheriff Mark Rohloff. He said theft of currency and notes only account for about 6 percent of the $316,339 reported stolen last year. Most of the property stolen was salvageable materials such as machinery and tools. This type of property crime is hard to track down and bring relief back to victims since most metallic items are broken down and sold. Recovered property has stayed below $100,000 for the past three years while stolen property has risen from about $200,000 in 2011 to $316,339 last year.
Rohloff's report uses national averages against his data and shows that on a scale of one to 100, property crime is still low at 29.1, compared to the U.S. average of 43.5.
Most of the high-volume statistics reported by the sheriff's office are from minor infractions such as speeding, driving with no proof of insurance, vehicles in the ditch, officers checking welfare and deer vs. vehicle accidents. A lot of calls include many infractions in the same incident, but the report does not distinguish whether a call had multiple offenses or not. Speeding 11 to 15 mph over the limit accounted for 910 reports, no proof of insurance had 266 reports, vehicles in the ditch had 261 reports, check-welfare had 674 reports and deer vs. vehicle accidents totaled 289.
Rohloff wrote in his report that the UCR figures more accurately depict violent crime in the county than a percentage change would due to the very low number of offenses from year to year. Using rape as an example, in 2011 there were no reports, and in 2012 there was one instance of forcible rape. This would reflect a 100 percent change over one year, which is not an accurate representation of the occurrence of rape.
Rohloff said the data shows that Green County is not a high-crime area. Though random acts of violence can occur, most of the reported infractions were motivated by people who know each other.
"(W)e live in a relatively safe place," he said.
Rohloff said he takes UCR data from the statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as in-house statistics. He said the combination gives a broader sense of measurements rather than strictly using the sheriff's department records. He also refrained from gathering data from villages, townships and cities so as not to overcomplicate the data. He said the sheriff's department gathers reports for about 40 percent of the county. By taking only the sheriff's department information, Rohloff said, it can give the public a better understanding of how his department's resources are utilized.
"Basically, I'm trying to let the public know what kind of activities we perform and some statistics to support our activity level," he said.