Property crime was down 19 percent in Columbus over the past three years, including 10 percent last year, a significant drop showing Columbus police are making some headway in a nagging problem that has persisted for years.
To make that property crime percentage go down even further, Columbus Police Chief Jon Rohde says he needs the cooperation of every local resident to remember when leaving their vehicles that valuables should be hidden out of sight or removed from the vehicle, and the vehicle should be locked, every, every time.
“Well, we had 395 thefts from vehicles last year, and 95 percent of them were from unlocked vehicles,” Rohde said of the statistics. Police estimate the property crime rate would go down an additional 30 percent if in those 395 cases, the owners had simply locked their vehicles.
And while that additional 30 percent would have been astounding, the decrease in property crime numbers so far is nothing to downplay, he said.
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“To see property crime decreases like this in our community is historic,” Rohde said. “And we are on pace in 2019 to see another 19 to 20 percent decrease in such crimes.”
Police are seeing more brazen approaches to stealing from vehicles, with reports of suspects walking into parking lots and pulling on doors to see if a vehicle is unlocked, and going through neighborhoods and parking lots. Most times, a thief will pass by a locked car with nothing valuable in sight because the search is for valuables that are visible, Rohde said.
Last month, Columbus Police Department spokesman Lt. Matt Harris said there had been 47 reported thefts from vehicles in Columbus and Bartholomew County since March 1, with more than half classified as “forced.”
“Forced” thefts are those in which a car window is broken or the vehicle was damaged to gain access to the valuables inside, Harris said.
Particularly concerning to Columbus police is that in three of those thefts, an unsecured firearm was stolen, Harris said. “Now those firearms are in the hands of a felon,” Harris said.
If a motorist is transporting a gun in their vehicle, it needs to be in a sturdy, locked gun safe designed for vehicle storage, Harris said.
In addition to the decline in thefts from vehicles, from the beginning of 2016 through the end of 2018, each of the CPD property crime classifications experienced a reduction:
Vehicle theft went down more than 12 percent.
The number of burglaries fell by almost 27 percent.
Thefts (not from vehicles) dropped by more than 18 percent.
Looking at the most recent year-to-year comparisons, vehicle thefts decreased by more 30 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to the report.
During that same period, there was an almost 11 percent decrease in burglaries, as well as an over 8 percent drop in non-vehicular thefts, the report states.
The police chief says he doesn’t believe the drop in property crime is temporary.
“We have been very intentional in implementing solutions to the specific crime issues in Columbus, and the results show that the action taken is providing the desired results,” Rohde said.
Another solution has been taking a proactive, rather than a reactive, response to crime, the police chief said. From 2017 to 2018, calls for service decreased 2.3 percent, while officer-initiated activity increased by 2 percent, the report states.
The department’s new intelligence led policing unit, now in place for a year, is getting much of the credit, according to Rohde. The team includes a criminal intelligence analyst who works with three officers to collect and store all data. By analyzing the information, this unit produces actionable direction for law enforcement activities, the report states.
“This innovative system has had a direct result in our reduction of property crime and drug-related offenses, and will continue to reduce crime in our community,” Rohde said.
CPD has also established partnerships that they say allow for more efficient investigations for crimes that do occur.
For example, the department has a retail theft liaison who partners with asset protection personnel from merchants, while a fraud liaison teams up on a regular basis with representatives of local financial institutions, the report states.
In addition, a diversion crime liaison has formed a partnership with local health care facility administrators, while a domestic violence liaison works directly with Turning Point Domestic Violence Services, according to the report.
More traditional partnerships still exist with several evidence-based judicial programs, as well as neighborhood crime watches, the report states.
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Property crimes (theft, burglary, vehicle theft) comparison in Columbus.
2015 – 2,106
2016 – 1,943
2017 – 1,904
2018 – 1,707
Source: 2018 annual report from the Columbus Police Department
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