By BILL KNIGHT
For The Weekly Post
The Peoria Sheriff’s Department’s comprehensive crime statistics for 2019 show fluctuations in some property crimes, crimes against people, and traffic enforcement, and Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell sees a few common threads that contribute to incidents.
First, the eight Peoria County townships in The Weekly Post’s circulation area where the County was the main responding agency demonstrate a few noteworthy changes in a few places:
• Thefts in Princeville and Princeville Township fell from 14 in 2018 to 3 last year.
• Traffic citations were up slightly in Brimfield and Brimfield Township, from 16 to 20.
• Thefts in Kickapoo dropped from 36 to 33, and traffic tickets there were up from 13 to 18.
• Traffic citations in Radnor were up significantly, from 3 to 11.
Maybe more interesting overall are incidents of domestic battery and vandalism/criminal damage to property.
Area-wide there were:
• 17 domestic battery incidents, and
• 28 vandalism/criminal damage to property incidents.
Looking at County-wide data, Asbell told The Weekly Post, “The most alarming statistic I see is an increase in non-marijuana drug arrests, however I think this can be explained two ways. 2019 stats compared to 2018 reveal a 50 percent increase in 2019 for this offense category (drugs/ non-cannabis). This paints a picture of a growing behavioral health problem in our community. Behavior health includes both mental health issues and substance abuse/ addictions.
“These drug-related arrests can also correlate to other offenses often related to substance abuse issues,” he continued. “Burglaries from motor vehicles saw a 70 percent increase from ’18 to ’19, reported theft-related charges show an increase of 12 percent and fraud-related complaints – including identity theft – were 15 percent higher in 2019 compared to 2018.”
Law enforcement believes there are other connections, Asbell said.
“There is a strong correlation between behavioral health issues and identified crime types. Simply put, individuals suffering from addictions need some sort of currency (either cash from sold stolen property or direct trade of stolen property for drugs) to feed his or her addiction.
“However, in saying this, we have put an emphasis on working these sort cases which have led to more arrests, being we have taken major steps in making the focus of the Peoria County Jail to focus on rehabilitation and reducing recidivism. The mindset is to attack the ‘root causations’ of behavioral health issues of individuals subsequently involved in criminal behavior with the hopes this creates a pathway to recovery, lowering criminal activity and thus making this a safer, healthier community.
“We created a case management/ re-entry specialist position to work with this population and are teaming with the Peoria County Health Department to combat this growing community problem with the ultimate hope of identifying at-risk individuals and providing necessary services prior to committing criminal offenses and either being introduced or returned to the criminal justice system,” he added. “Both County Board Chairman Andrew Rand and State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos are supportive of this approach and there will be more to report on this later in the year.”
Another cause for worry, Asbell said, is an increase in domestic battery and related infractions.
“Other offenses which showed significant increase from 2018 to 2019 were domestic-violence offenses, a 27 percent increase,” Asbell said. “I believe there is a behavioral health influence to this crime type but it’s not always the case. Sometimes social media and other ‘electronic-related devices’ create trust issues that compound unhealthy relationships, which can lead to violence. Obviously, there are other reasons for these types of offenses, but [these are] some of the trends we see related to these situations.”
Some factors affecting incident reporting are less social or criminal and more financial, he said. “Traffic stops and DUI-related offenses both doubled in numbers from 2018 to 2019,” the Sheriff said.
“This has much to do with getting back up to adequate staffing levels. In late 2018 through early 2019 we hired 11 new patrol deputies who then successfully completed seven months of required training and were released to work on their own.
“Even though I still believe overall staffing levels are still extremely low compared to duties and expectations, having these vacant positions filled has increased traffic enforcement and response times for calls for service.
“We still work under the ‘do more with less’ reality, but I am thankful for the continued quality of service provided to our community by the men and women of the Peoria County Sheriff’s Office.
2019 Local Crime Statistics
Brimfield city and township together reported the following crimes in 2019:
• 9 domestic battery
• 2 vehicular burglary
• 1 residential burglary
• 3 driving with a suspended or revoked license
• 2 Driving Under the Influence (DUI)
• 6 identity theft
• 1 resisting/obstructing arrest
• 2 sexual assault
• 13 thefts
• 4 vandalism/criminal damage to property
• 20 traffic tickets
• 11 accidents with injuries
• 30 accidents without an injury
• 1 battery/mob action
• 1 non-residential burglary
• 4 disorderly conduct
• 1 drugs
• 1 trespassing
• 1 unlawful visitation
• 2 weapons-related offense
Elmwood city and township together:
• 2 domestic battery
• 2 DUI
• 2 resisting/obstructing arrest
• 1 sexual assault
• 4 thefts
• 4 vandalism/criminal damage to property
• 6 traffic tickets
• 1 fatal accident
• 5 accidents with injuries
• 9 accidents without an injury
• 2 battery/mob action
• 1 disorderly conduct
• 1 unlawful visitation
• 1 battery/endangering a child
• 1 obstructing justice
• 1 sexual abuse
• 2 violation of an order of protection
Jubilee:
• 1 identity theft
• 1 thefts
• 8 traffic tickets
• 1 fatal accident
• 4 accident with injuries
• 17 accident without an injury
• 1 battery/mob action
• 2 trespassing
• 1 weapons-related offense
• 2 harassment
• 1 violation of an order of protection
Kickapoo:
• 1 vehicular burglary
• 4 residential burglary
• 1 driving with a suspended or revoked license
• 5 DUI
• 3 identity theft
• 1 resisting/obstructing arrest
• 1 sexual assault
• 33 thefts
• 9 vandalism/criminal damage to property
• 18 traffic tickets
• 9 accident with injuries
• 59 accident without an injury
• 8 battery/mob action
• 2 non-residential burglary
• 3 disorderly conduct
• 3 drugs
• 5 trespassing
• 1 sexual abuse
• 4 violation of an order of protection
• 1 assault
Millbrook:
• 2 domestic battery
• 1 residential burglary
• 1 driving with a suspended or revoked license
• 1 vandalism/criminal damage to property
• 4 traffic tickets
• 1 accident with an injury
• 5 accident without an injury
Princeville township and village together:
• 1 domestic battery
• 2 vehicular burglary
• 3 residential burglary
• 1 DUI
• 6 identity theft
• 3 resisting/obstructing arrest
• 3 thefts
• 10 vandalism/criminal damage to property
• 7 traffic tickets
• 2 accident with injuries
• 23 accident without an injury
• 3 battery/mob action
• 3 disorderly conduct
• 2 drugs
• 2 trespassing
• 1 unlawful visitation
• 1 battery/endangering a child
• 1 sexual abuse
• 1 violation of an order of protection
• 2 motor vehicle theft
Radnor:
• domestic battery
• 2 vehicular burglary
• 1 residential burglary
• 1 DUI
• 2 identity theft
• 1 sex/violent offender violation
• 3 thefts
• 11 traffic tickets
• 8 accident with injuries
• 25 accident without an injury
• 2 non-residential burglary
• 1 disorderly conduct
• 1 weapons-related offense
Rosefield:
• 1 domestic battery
• 1 residential burglary
• 3 identity theft
• 3 thefts
• 1 traffic tickets
• 4 accident with injuries
• 10 accident without an injury
• 2 trespassing
• 1 sexual abuse
”BILL KNIGHT can be reached at bill.knight@hotmail.com
