LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / May 13, 2000

HAHNVILLE – First-quarter crime statistics released by the St. CharlesParish Sheriff’s Office indicate a 25 percent increase over the same quarter in 1999.

Department spokesman Capt. Patrick Yoes said increased burglaries,especially auto burglaries, and assaults, especially domestic violence, contributed to the jump.

“These areas are always a thorn in our sides,” Yoes said, adding a recent decrease in vehicle burglaries with several arrests made should contribute to a statistical improvement next quarter.

With assaults, most of the increases were with domestic violence. However,with a greater public attention paid to domestic violence matters, the statistical increase could partially be laid at more reporting of these crimes by the victims – a good thing.

Another factor could be population increases, as St. Charles Parish isundergoing a boom in residential construction at present.

“Through an ongoing effort victims of domestic violence receive valuable resources in an effort to break the cycle of family violence through counseling and education,” Sheriff Greg C. Champagne indicated.A total of 764 crimes were charted in the Uniform Crime Reports Index for January-March 2000, which lists murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, auto theft and theft.

The preceding quarter, October-December 1999, charted 717 crimes.

In crimes against the person, one murder was reported in the first quarter of 2000, with none in the preceding quarter. There were three rapes in thelast quarter of 1999 and three again in the first quarter of 2000.

Assaults jumped from 256 in late 1999 to 302 early this year. Robberiesdropped from 21 in October-December 1999 to 13 in January-March 2000.

Theft dropped from 305 to 281 in the same period. Burglary rose from 104to 129 in the same period. Auto theft rose from 28 to 35 incidents.Since Champagne first took office in mid-1996, crime has generally dropped in St. Charles Parish. In calendar year 1997 crimes totaled 2,768 incidents.This dropped to 2,753 in 1998 and in 1999, dropped again to 2,737 incidents.

However, first-quarter 2000’s total of 764 incidents is a massive jump from the same period in 1999, which had 610 incidents.

Meanwhile, the sheriff’s deputies can hardly wait to have the new correctional center completed next spring. Presently, a daily review of jailpopulation indicates how many people could be arrested on any particular day.

“They can’t build the jail fast enough for us,” Yoes said.

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