While homicides have increased from one to three during the past year, other violent crimes including aggravated assaults and thefts are declining. Through August of this year, there have been 579 thefts compared to 1,025 in 2014.
“One of the biggest single categories of crime in Fairfield is thefts from vehicles,” said Police Chief Mike Dickey. “Those are down significantly. We had 149 (motor vehicle thefts) in 2015, and then 230 last year for the same period of time.”
Dickey said Fairfield police have been concentrating on reducing property crime because it can be more easily prevented than violent crime. The chief said at every roll call briefing, supervisors have to review what is called the five-day hot spot report.
“It’s a rolling five days so the officers on the street know what’s occurring where in the city, so officers on the street can address their patrol tactics and other activities toward that,” Dickey said.
Officers also engaged in activities to educate the public about crime prevention.
“We wrote articles, we went to apartment complexes and discussed it with them,” Fairfield police Officer Doug Day said. “Number one, hide your valuables. If it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. A lot of people won’t take the risk to go into a car if there’s nothing there to get.
“Lock your vehicle. Don’t give them the opportunity to go through your vehicle to find something,” he said.
As for the three homicides this year, Dickey said they were mostly committed by people known to the victims, as was the case with Micheal Jason Miller and victim Carol Boyd, or Austin Morris, who killed his two-month-old son Benjamin. Miller was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Morris also got a life sentence. The third homicide was the shooting of Harold Brown of Cincinnati at Wiseguys Bar and Grill.
“When we look at it, there is a trend there, but the numbers are so small, it’s kind of hard to attribute the trend to anything but crime being cyclical,” Dickey said. “If you look at the total picture, the violent crime is up by 10 (total crimes), which when you’re looking at roughly 1,300 crimes a year, is a very small number.”
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