Category Archives: Crime

Photo by Alan_Cleaver2000.

Now the the first half of 2011 is safely in the books, GM took a look back at the crime stats to see how we’re doing. Not so great is the answer.

There were 459 crime incidents in Georgetown and Burleith during the first half of 2011. That compares with 407 during the first half of 2010, which means crime was up 13%.

But the story gets more interesting when you look at the individual categories. In most crime was level and even down. But in one category spiked dramatically:

• Theft

• 2010 – 269
• 2011 – 246

• 2010 – 27
• 2011 – 18

• 2010 – 29
• 2011 – 66

• 2010 – 66
• 2011 – 70

• 2010 – 13
• 2011 – 11

• 2010 – 2
• 2011 – 4

• 2010 – 23
• 2011 – 22 Continue reading →

GM got a tip yesterday from a Georgetown resident. He reported to GM that the apartment building he lives in near 30th and P was subject to repeated intrusions recently by a suspicious individual. Specifically, severally nights ago a man was harassing women outside the building. A resident broke up the incident and no police were called.

However, last night the same individual gained entry into the locked building and was walking the hallways loudly banging on the doors. Soon thereafter it was discovered that the mail from the mail boxes was tampered with and destroyed.

A call was placed to MPD. But it took the police 40 minutes to respond. The officers were rude and dismissive of the complaints and claimed that no crime had taken place. They doubted the severity of the harassment and told the residents that maybe next time they should just call the post office. They grudgingly searched the premises and then left without taking any statements from the residents. All in all, a rather poor response in GM’s opinion.

The one bright note: residents contacted the CAG safety patrol officer (via their block captain), who came immediately to the location and stayed there until the police arrived.

From MPD2d:

On Friday, December 31, 2010, at 11:50 p.m. a Simple Assault/Domestic Violence offense occurred in the 3200 block of M St., N.W. (PSA 206) and was subsequently reported to the MPD.

The victim reported that he and his girlfriend were having a verbal dispute. The dispute turned physical when his girlfriend began to punch, knee and kick him. The victim sustained defensive injuries to his left hand and bruises to his neck. The MPD was summoned and arrested the suspect. This is a closed case.

And with that, crime in Georgetown closed out its 2010 numbers. And what did they look like? Sort of a mixed bag really.

• Total crimes: 880 (down 4.76%)*
• Categories up in 2010:
  • Stolen Autos up 10.53%
  • Robberies up 26.83%(!)
  • ADW up 48%(!!)
  • Sexual Assault up 200%(!!!)
• Categories down in 2010:
  • Thefts down .18% (there was only one less theft in 2010)
  • Burglary down 12.2%
  • Car Break-ins down 36.67%

In fairness, some of these percentages are getting skewed by how low the numbers are.  But they are troubling nonetheless. GM will dig in a little more to the numbers over the next week or so, so stay tuned!

*Interestingly, at the ANC meeting Luitenant Hedgecock stated that crime in Georgetown (i.e. PSA 206) was down 6%, so either he’s got different stats than GM or someone’s math is wrong.

The District of Columbia Crime Policy Institute released an fascinating map yesterday that details crime levels for each census block in the city. Above is a detail of the map showing Georgetown. The darker areas correlate to the higher crime areas.

Unsurprisingly, crime in Georgetown occurs most along the commercial corridors. One thing that immediately jumps out is that the campus of Georgetown University has the highest crime rating. But once you dig into it a little it makes sense. The black areas are blocks with 25 crimes or more per year. Since Georgetown University is once big census block, 25 crimes spread out over a large campus of several thousand for a whole year doesn’t sound so bad.

Here’s what Georgetown looks like compared to the rest of the city:

Continue reading →