Riley County has seen an increase in reported aggravated assaults in June 2019, contributing to an uptick in the part 1 crime statistics compared to 2018 and the five-year average. The Riley County Law Enforcement Agency — colloquially known as the Law Board — discussed the trend Monday at the Ogden Community Center.
Part 1 crimes include aggravated assaults, homicide, rape, motor vehicle theft and larceny among other offenses. Overall, total part 1 crime in June is up 8.7 percent from ’18 and up 10.4 percent from the five-year average — though RCPD Director Dennis Butler says the five-year average is skewed due to an atypically low year of crime in 2014 and that removing that year would flatten the trend out.
“Can’t explain why ’14 was so low, but it was, and so it makes it look like that five-year trend is much higher,” says Butler.
Butler says a trend that is “definitely higher” is aggravated assaults and batteries, which is up 34.6 percent in June compared to the five-year average despite falling by 6.7 percent from 2018. Butler says that around 75 percent of such crimes reported were perpetrated by an assailant known to the victim.
“Many of those cases also involve domestic violence,” Butler says.
Butler says his impression is those numbers are up across the state and RCPD is trying to impact that rate through increased education and communication with the community regarding domestic violence by providing resources on how to stop or escape abusive situations.
“Those sometimes help, but as far as a predictor — how do we prevent it from happening other than education when three quarters of the victims and assailants know each other — is very challenging,” says Butler. “So I don’t have an answer for you specifically on how we can address that.”
Overall, part 1 violent crime is up 57.9 percent in June compared to the average, which RCPD believes is a temporary spike “with no indication that it will become a chronic problem.”
Motor vehicle thefts in June were 53.9 percent above the five-year average, which RCPD attributed to a low number of reported incidents in ’14, ’15 and ’16. According to police, in five of six non-civil incidents keys were left inside the vehicle. Butler encourages people to not do that as well as hide any valuables left inside in addition to locking their doors.
“People who are interested in stealing cars often times will just walk down the street just trying car doors,” Butler says. “And if they find one unlocked they’ll go in, they’ll steal what they can and if they find keys, a lot of times they’ll take the car and go somewhere with it.”
Other stats from June 2019: burglaries from vehicles are down 23.9 percent from the average; structural burglaries down 25.6 percent; DUIs are down 4.8 percent; five robberies were reported in June, four from individuals and one from a business.
Butler also says he believes crime is under-reported in rural parts of the county and that they will be devoting a sergeant coming off of a federal task force to the northern areas of the county to increase RCPD presence and supervise the four officers permanently assigned there.
“They’re doing a fine job and they’re being supervised well, but I just have a core belief that having a supervisor that’s up there with them, working with them, identifying issues, developing strategies, working with citizens will help us better address what is happening there and hopefully encourage more people to report crime so we have some statistical data to justify more resources up there if they’re needed.”
Board Chair and Manhattan Mayor Mike Dodson says citizens in the north appreciate and are comforted by seeing officers more frequently, as it signals the department’s interest in protecting them and serving their needs. Member Craig Beardsley says anything the department can do to increase rural residents’ comfort level in reporting crime is a good thing.
“I appreciate the interest that we have in reaching out to the public and letting them know that we’re going to do those things necessary or do the important things so they do in fact report crime and rely on us to do everything in our power to take it to a conclusion and feel like they can do that without retribution.”
Butler says that he hopes in the long-term they can hold people accountable who may be escaping justice and make the county a safer place.
The full monthly crime report can be viewed here.
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