NEIGHBORHOOD NOTES | Crime report for January

The chart shows an overall decrease of crime in the four Longfellow neighborhoods compared to 2011.Best progress shows in larceny which dropped 25 percent and robbery which dropped 89 percent. A disturbing increase in rapes makes up for the satisfaction of again having no murders anywhere in the Longfellow community in January. On the property crime end, burglaries, a big problem area, have stayed constant but auto thefts have increased 29 percent. Police reports indicate that might largely be a result of people warming their cars with no one present. It is a ticketable offense that is seldom ticketed nowadays. But finding your car missing, or even crashed, kind of dilutes the satisfaction of getting away with violation of an ordinance. Insurance companies require a police report in order to process a claim, and reading that the car was idling to warm it up might leave the insurance company cold.

Jim Mork