The rate of violent crime in Lee County decreased significantly from 2009 to 2010, according to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center.
The Center recently released statistics for updated Alabama crime rates. As a whole, the state saw a 24 percent drop in robberies, a 13 percent decrease in homicides and a 20 percent decrease in rapes last year.
Reported robberies in Auburn decreased to 13 from a previous 45. Opelika's reported robberies decreased from 83 in 2009 to 31 last year.
Lee County also saw a drop in burglary arrests from 101 to 55, and the number of robberies decreased from 35 to 25. Theft arrests dramatically decreased from 721 to 559. The number of reported rapes fell from 24 to 10, though the number of rape arrests rose from 6 to 11. Arrests on simple assault charges also decreased, falling to 673 from 713.
Auburn Police Division Chief Tommy Dawson attributed these successes to the determination and resolve of the Auburn and Lee County police forces.
"It's just a lot of prayer and hard work," Dawson said. "They take it very personally when crime is committed in our city."
Dawson said the Auburn Police Division gets a lot of support from the City administrators, and though the three are separate entities, Auburn, Opelika and Lee County police departments work very closely with one another. He also said the community plays a large part in aiding the Auburn Police Division with its work.
Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones shares similar sentiments with Dawson.
"We're very pleased to see that these numbers have gone down, especially because of the type of crime this is," Jones said. "We like to think it might be due in part to people being more vigilant and aware of their surroundings."
Jones said that the leading contributors to violent crime are domestic disputes, but the police force does its best to aggressively deal with the situations when they arise.
"You can't point at any one cause," Jones said. "Maybe it was because of the economy, maybe it wasn't. There are all kinds of different elements that factor into it."
Jones also said this trend of decreasing violent crime is a trend in many other states across the country and in the nation as a whole.
Other types of crimes also decreased in Lee County. Public intoxication arrests dropped from 340 to 302, and arrests due to liquor law violation fell from 324 to 240. The only alcohol-related increase was in the number of driving under the influence arrests, which rose to 707 from 650.
Arrests due to drug offenses fell from 347 to 242, and drug paraphernalia arrests decreased from 210 to 114.
"It makes everybody feel well about what we're doing, that we're actually accomplishing something," Dawson said. "We're very thankful for that, but we have to remind ourselves not to let our guard down either."
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