Is crime up or down in Belleville? Here’s what new, more detailed reporting system shows
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Belleville Police Chief Matt Eiskant told a group of residents who raised concerns about the level of crime in their neighborhood that criminal offenses are actually down slightly citywide.
The city is using a new, more detailed way of analyzing reported offenses, which breaks crime down into three categories: crimes against persons, crimes against property and crimes against society. Eiskant told the residents in the community meeting that Belleville saw decreases in all three categories in 2023 compared to 2022.
Nichole Hettenhausen, who lives on Abend Street near downtown, said during the forum that it’s hard to remain positive about the city given what she perceives as an increase in “violent crimes, thefts and break-ins” in her neighborhood. Others mentioned homelessness, drug addiction and vacant homes among their concerns.
One resident who lives near East End Park said she feels “rattled in my own neighborhood.”
Eiskant pointed to more promising city-wide data, adding he thinks Belleville “is extremely safe.”
It may be hard to spot crime trends in Belleville, however, due to differences between the old and new crime reporting systems.
The city’s new system, which is known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, identifies 36 specific criminal offense. The old system, known as the Uniform Crime Report, had just 10.
The city has posted its first crime report on the new system on its website, belleville.net. Statistics on the website go back to 2014.
Crimes against persons category include such offenses as murder, rape, aggravated assault and simple assault. Belleville had three murders in 2023 and two in 2022. There were 37 rapes in 2023 and 35 in 2022.
Crimes against property includes robbery, burglary/breaking & entering, larceny/theft offenses, arson, motor vehicle theft, destruction of property and fraud. There were 151 burglary/breaking & entering reports in 2023 and 98 in the previous year. The city had 181 motor vehicle thefts in 2023, up from 105.
The crimes against society category includes drug violations, drug equipment violations and weapons law violations.
Assistant Police Chief Mark Heffernan said that comparing the new method of collecting statistics with the previous one is like comparing “apples and oranges.”
“The data is pulled and coded differently,” he said in an email.
Under the Uniform Crime Reporting method, only “the most serious offense on a police report was the reported offense,” he said.
Under the National Incident-Based Reporting System, a crime that was only counted as a single offense in the previous way, could actually generate up to three listings.
“For example, if a vehicle window is broken and the vehicle was stolen, criminal damage to property and vehicle theft would be reported,” Heffernan said. “If the suspect was arrested with a gun they were not legally allowed to possess, that would be another reported offense. So, one police report in this scenario could have three reported offenses…”
Heffernan said he believes the National Incident-Based Reporting System is “a more detailed reporting system and the nature by which the data is reported I believe it could appear crime has increased when comparing” the new method with the previous one.
Belleville began using the National Incident-Based Reporting System in 2021 but the first monthly report to indicate the new categories on the city’s website was the September 2023 report.
Heffernan said the delay occurred because the city’s records management vendor needed “some time to build the codes to pull the proper data for the reports.”
Before the city implemented the National Incident-Based Reporting System, the Belleville News-Democrat in 2021 analyzed Uniform Crime Reporting statistics in the city from 2004 to 2020.
The analysis of this 17-year period showed that Belleville averaged two murders per year. It also showed that the city had an annual average of 378 burglaries in this time period.
Heffernan said the department sees “crime statistics ebb and flow and there can be anomalies.”
For instance, the BND analysis of burglary statistics showed there was one year with 500 burglaries and another year with 162.
Heffernan also noted that the reports can be amended as the department gets new information.
In his meeting with residents last month, Eiskant noted that the crimes against person had dropped 2.77% in 2023 and that crimes against property had dropped 1.77%. However the latest annual report released to the News-Democrat shows that these two categories dropped 1.91% and 1.18%, respectively.
Eiskant also told the residents that the crime statistics for early 2024 were up as compared to the early part of 2023.
Heffernan said the department is monitoring this increase in 2024 but he noted this is an “extremely small window of time regarding a year over year increase.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
