While reports of most crimes have decreased in Hinsdale, reports of domestic violence have increased over the last four years, Hinsdale police said.
According to year-end crime reports released by police, there were 31 reports of assault/battery, 14 residential burglaries, 24 burglaries to vehicles, 169 thefts, 139 vandalism incidents, 32 drug offenses, 44 disorderly conduct crimes, and 130 domestic crimes in 2011.
All of the categories were down from four years ago except for domestic crime, which increased by two reports. There were 128 domestic crimes reported in 2008, officials said.
Police Chief Bradley Bloom said overall he is pleased with the four-year decrease in crime in nearly all categories. With the difficult economy, he said they would not have been surprised to see an upward trend in crime.
“It’s counter intuitive to what we would’ve predicted,” he said.
From 2008 to 2011, reports of assault/battery decreased 18 percent from 38 to 31, residential burglary went down 58 percent from 33 to 14, burglary to motor vehicles decreased 55 percent from 53 to 24, theft dropped three percent from 174 to 169, vandalism went down ten percent from 154 to 139, drug offenses dropped 24 percent from 42 to 32, and disorderly conduct decreased 70 percent from 44 to 13, police said.
Crimes that increased from 2010 to 2011 included assault/battery, which went from 23 to 31; theft, which increased 159 to 169, vandalism, which increased from 131 to 139 and domestic crime which increased from 113 to 130.
Crime that decreased from 2010 to 2011 included residential burglaries that dropped by one from 15 to 14, burglary to motor vehicles that decreased from 50 to 24, drug offenses that went from 38 to 36 and disorderly conduct that decreased by half from 26 to 13.
Bloom said it’s not surprising to see increases or decreases from year-to-year.
“Crime occurs in different cycles,” he said. “Sometimes crime is high (in a particular year) because there’s a group (of criminals) that move in but then they go to jail or they move out.”
He said the department does not have plans to make changes in how they operate based on the report.
“We haven’t changed our approach,” he said. “I wish we didn’t have any crime. But overall we’re not seeing any increase over five years. That’s a good thing.”
