The City of Danville has seen a decrease in all but 3 of the 13 violent and serious quality of life crimes. So says Danville Police Chief Christopher Yates who issued a report Tuesday evening to the Public Services Committee of the Danville City Council….
{AUDIO: ”The three that we increased on were Aggravated Assault. It could be anything from someone threatening somebody with a stick to a gun. We also saw an increase in Sexual Assaults. We could speculate what caused that, but I’ll just tell you that those numbers have gone up. And also Thefts.”
Chief Yates says simple thefts have increased about 13-percent. His report compared Danville’s figures from January 1st through July 27th last year to that same period this year.
Chief Yates outlined some key areas where crime figures have shown improvement…
{AUDIO: ”About a 45-percent decrease in Reckless Discharge of a Firearm. That’s these shootings, shots fired type calls. Aggravated Battery With a Firearm – we saw about a 20-percent decrease from the same time period – this year to last year. That’s where you actually have someone who is injured or shot. Unlawful Use of a Weapon (the same) we saw about a 20-percent decrease.”}
Despite some improved numbers, the Danville Police Chief said he is not satisfied…
{AUDIO: ”We’ve seen promising numbers, and we have seen decreases. But nothing that I’m super-excited about just because whenever you have people shot, the difference between a homicide and an injury can be a matter of centimeters.”}
Chief Yates added there are a couple of numbers that leave him scratching his head. One is the large number of traffic crashes and the other is domestic batteries. He would like to see improvement in both areas.
