Violent crime down; burglary cases surge in Pittsylvania County

Violent crimes, including robberies and assaults, have declined in Pittsylvania County over the past five years.

The low number of murders — three almost annually — has remained steady since 2007.

However, larceny and burglary cases have surged, according to figures from the county sheriff’s office.

Sheriff Mike Taylor aims to form a five-member task force within the next few months to focus on burglaries, which increased by about 20 percent from 207 in 2007 to 250 last year. Larceny cases went up in 2011 by about a third to 425 from 310 in 2007.

The figures apply to the unincorporated parts of the county and exclude the towns of Chatham, Gretna and Hurt.

The total number of crimes overall rose from 621 in 2007 to 752 in 2011. Burglaries and larcenies made up large majorities of those numbers, according to figures from the sheriff’s office.

The total number of crimes dropped slightly from 2010 to 2011, from 769 to 752.

Though a struggling economy is frequently cited as a cause of elevated levels of crime, Taylor is skeptical of that view.

“You hear that with the downturn of the economy, crime increases, but I don’t know that it increases to the extent that it would push those numbers into a tremendous spike,” Taylor said during an interview at his office in Chatham on Jan. 23.

A rise in the price of precious metals has contributed to the surge in burglary/larceny, Taylor said, with many cases involving theft of copper, electrical wire, irrigation pipes, tractor batteries and farm implements such as plow points. Thieves sell the items to precious metal dealers for drug money, Taylor said.

“In some cases, it’s greed,” he said. “Many times these people just want something for nothing.”

Domestic issues also factor into burglary/larceny, with one member of a split couple reporting a burglary by the other, Taylor said.

Also, burglars are coming to Pittsylvania County — an area about the size of Rhode Island — from other places, Taylor said.

“These thieves are so mobile now,” Taylor said.

They travel from Rockingham County, Reidsville and Greensboro in North Carolina or Campbell County, Lynchburg or Appomattox, and then they’re gone, he said.

“It’s not the neighborhood thieves anymore,” Taylor said.

Since 2008, the numbers of drug cases/arrests have consistently fallen. There were 278 cases in 2008, 222 in 2009 and 192 in 2010. By 2011, the arrests fell to 160, Taylor said. The numbers plummeted because drug offenders no longer want to buy or sell illegal substances in Pittsylvania County.

“It could be that drug offenders/dealers are not wanting to conduct business in the county because of the significant prison terms they read about other drug offenders receiving from our courts,” Taylor said via email.

Taylor also credited task force concentration on the biggest drug threats, educational programs such as DARE and successful long-term investigations by his office.

Murder figures remained steady in the county since 2007, with three every year except 2010, when there were four.

Aggravated assaults have slowly dropped by a third, from 29 in 2007 to 20 last year. Robberies fell gradually by half since 2007, from 19 to 10.

Taylor credits a strong criminal justice system — law enforcement, prosecution and juries — in Pittsylvania County for the decrease in robberies, aggravated assaults and other crimes.

“They’re fair but they’re firm,” Taylor said of the court system.

“We have a group of dedicated people here that do their best to protect our citizens here,” Taylor said.

The numbers of rapes in Pittsylvania County see-sawed over the past five years, almost doubling from 2007 to 2008 from 10 to 19, only to drop to 9 and 10, respectively in 2009 and 2010. Last year had a slight up-tick to 13, according to the sheriff’s office figures.

Motor vehicle thefts have fallen since 2007 from 35 to 27 in 2011. However, there was a spike from 23 to 37 from 2009 to 2010.

Arson cases have fallen by half since 2007, from eight to four.