September 24, 2002

VIOLENT CRIME IS DOWN IN RAHWAY

RAHWAY - The city's violent crime rate fell more than 14 percent during 2001,according to the state Uniform Crime Report released this week.

Classified as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, there were 59 violent crimes committed in the city during 2001, compared with 69 such offenses in 2000.

Although increases in motor vehicle theft and larceny drove up slightly the overall crime rate, officials said they are pleased by the report, which showed almost a 25 percent decline in burglaries, and a 50 percent drop in rapes over the previous year.

Rahway's overall crime rate of 36.9 crimes per 1,000 residents is far below the state average for urban areas, which is 43.7. In addition, the violent crime rate in the city, which dropped from 2.6 to just 2.2 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, is less than a third of the state's urban average of 6.7 crimes per 1,000 population.

Rahway's crime rate is also lower than that of Union County as a whole, officials noted.
Mayor James Kennedy said he will task Police Chief Kevin White with the responsibility to look into the increase in car thefts, but that he is satisfied with the police department's success in fighting crime.

“We have more police than ever before and a state-of-the-art command and control center that integrates systems used for rapid communications between the public and emergency personnel,” said Kennedy. “While any crime is too much crime, and minor thefts are a nuisance, the most serious crimes have never been this low and we are proud to make Rahway a safer place to live, work and do business.”

Police officials say larceny, which includes shoplifting and thefts from unattended vehicles, rose by 111 cases because there is more economic activity in the city.

”When new stores open and more people leave their cars here, there's going to be a slight increase in that kind of minor theft,” explained White. “We are have stepped up patrols and otherwise taken action to curtail these offenses, but I can't tell you how proud I am that we have taken a serious bite out of violent crime and other serious crimes.”

About 2,500 new jobs have been created at Merck and Co. since the mid-1990s, and the increased number of unattended vehicles resulted in the 111 additional larcenies and 44 car thefts which contributed to the bump in the city's overall crime rate.

Still, officials said having the number of burglaries drop from 204 in 2000 to 156 in 2001, and across the board reductions in such crimes as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault means police are scoring in where it counts the most.

Eliminating minor thefts will require more public awareness to reduce opportunities for such crimes, White said.

“Our Community Assistance Team is going to work on that,” he said.