Significant Decline in Overall Crime in Evanston

While other communities throughout the nation may have seen a rise in crime between 2008 and 2009, the City of Evanston has achieved a significant decline as it pertains to major part-one crime categories. Statistics indicate that murder is down 50%, criminal sexual assault rose from 5 incidents to 7 translating to a 40% increase, robbery was down a significant 29.6%, aggravated battery & assault down 5.7%, burglary down 12.6%, theft down 12.9%, motor vehicle theft down 23% and arson rose from 8 to 11, equaling an increase of 37.5%. This statistical analysis equates to a year to date comparison aggregate for 2008 to 2009 indicating a total overall decline in crime of 13.4%.

Contributing to this success is the Evanston Police Department’s ability to gather crime data, analyze trends and allocate police resources, to expediently target areas and individuals. The Evanston Police Department believes it is critical that all police efforts to address crime and quality of life issues be timely, specifically nuanced in the delivery of police services, and judicious in their application.

Each week, all members of the Evanston Police Department’s command staff attend a strategic deployment session. It’s during this deployment meeting that crime analysis maps are presented, trends are discussed, and the previous week’s deployment efforts are analyzed. Command staff personnel then review the most current statistical crime category summaries and develop specific deployment strategies designed to expeditiously impact crime in designated geographic areas.

Another important component of successfully addressing crime and quality of life issues has been the Evanston Police Department’s desire to actively establish partnerships with twenty-seven community groups throughout Evanston. Through these community ties information is exchanged, neighborhood events are held, and the police community relationship is strengthened.

The Evanston Police Department also believes it is extremely important to be transparent, have information accessible to the public, and to continually communicate as an agency. This is accomplished by officers attending public meetings, sending information via listservs, and by publishing information on the City of Evanston’s website incorporating monthly crime maps, statistics, daily crime bulletins, and crime prevention publications.

Other examples of cooperation between Neighborhood Watch Groups and the Evanston Police Department include Noyes Street Neighbors, who coalesced when several residences were burglarized. These citizens held public meetings with elected officials and police, increased their personal vigilance, reported all suspicious persons, and opted for instruction from police availing themselves to residential security surveys. On the south end of town, Brummel Park Neighbors have been extremely active and engaged. Some of their successes include highly organized neighborhood walks, a trash busters’ day to clean up the neighborhood, a spring jobs fair, Halloween safety patrols, and most recently, participation in the Full Circle Project, collecting vital data to be used in development planning. All of these efforts are being centrally coordinated by using a well established website.

-Tom Guenther, EPD