DANBURY - Crime in the city was flat going into the holiday season in November compared to the same month in 2019 due to an increase in thefts, according to the latest numbers from the police department.
The city’s police chief said the 10 percent increase in thefts in November compared to the same month in 2019 wasn’t attributable to a single cause that warranted special law enforcement attention or public concern.
“Any crime number is too much and although it’s probably unrealistic to say that we shouldn’t have any crime, it’s something we continue to work towards,” police Chief Patrick Ridenhour said Thursday.
The month-over-month increase in thefts in November - and a larger 14 percent increase in thefts in October over the same month in 2019 - is a blip in the overall crime picture in 2020 for Danbury, which is one of Connecticut’s safest cities.
For the first 11 months of 2020, crime in eight categories was down 27 percent, according to the police department’s latest report to the City Council. And although thefts were up in the fall, thefts overall are down 25 percent for the first 11 months of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
The monthly numbers, which track homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson, lag behind real time by a month. They are not official until they are audited by the state.
Much of decline in Danbury’s 2020 crime is due to lockdown conditions of the coronavirus pandemic, city leaders have said. Leaders have also credited the police department’s good relationship with Danburians.
“The major crimes are crimes against people - homicide, rape, robbery and assault,” Ridenhour said. “What we’re seeing is an increase in crimes against property.”
The city has also had more homicides than it’s accustomed to having - four in 2020 compared to three homicides total for the previous three years combined.
Ridenhour said the homicides were not part of a larger pattern.
“Had this been a consistent trend as you have in some cities that have daily shootings and a lot of problems in certain communities, this would be more concerning,” Ridenhour said.
The most recent homicide in October - which the police department did not report to the public until Tuesday after a reporter requested information about it - was a murder-suicide involving an ailing couple.
“They were two people in a whole lot of pain due to health issues and they apparently decided to go out together,” Ridenhour said. “It gets classified as a homicide as well it should because one person took the life of another, but from the standpoint of warning the community about their safety, it isn’t warranted.”
rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
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January 10, 2021 at 06:06PM
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