Major Crime In Township Down 4.6 Percent From 2015 To 2016

The Route 27 scene of the one murder that occurred in the township in 2016.

Although some categories did see increases, overall major crime in the township decreased by more than 4 percent from 2015 to 2016.

According to “index crime” statistics gathered by the Franklin Township Police Department, the number of reported crimes in the Eight Villages decreased from 1,177 in 2015 to 1,123 in 2016, a drop of 4.6 percent.

“Index crimes” are those used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation  to calculate its nationwide uniform crime index: murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Information on index crimes in the township in 2016 was presented April 11 to the Township Council by FTPD Chief Lawrence Roberts, Deputy Chief Richard Grammar and Capt. Gregory Borlan as part of the department’s 2016 annual report.

The FTPD also included arson in its report, although that is not an index crime.

Most categories showed decreases, but there were some spikes.

The number of reported rapes jumped 80 percent, from five in 2015 to nine in 2016. And the number of assaults with a weapon other than a gun or a knife increased from one in 2015 to seven in 2016.

But the number of reported total assaults dropped nearly 10 percent, from 316 in 2015 to 285 in 2016. Reported assaults involving a gun decreased 57 percent, from seven in 2015 to three in 2016, and reported assaults using physical force decreased 90 percent from 2015 to 2016, from 10 to one, respectively.

Reported burglaries increased 4.4 percent, from 182 in 2015 to 190 in 2016, while reported larcenies dropped 4 percent (593 to 569) and reported motor vehicle thefts dropped nearly 26 percent (43 to 32) in that time period.

There were 34 reported robberies in 2015 and 35 in 2016, a jump of about 3 percent.

In 2016, township police made 1,259 arrests, 1,144 of which were adults and 115 of which were juveniles. That’s a 21 percent drop from the 2015 arrest total of 1,589, 1,392 of which were adults and 197 of which were juveniles, according to the department’s statistics.

Of those 2016 arrests, 240 were for index crimes: 211 adults and 29 juveniles, according to the statistics. That’s up from the 2015 total of 216 index crime arrests, which was comprised of 182 adults and 34 juveniles.

The 2015 total did represent the highest number of arrests since 2006, when township police made 1,599 arrests.

The FTPD’s Investigative Division was assigned 441 cases in 2016, a decrease from 2015’s 495. The division cleared 57 percent of those cases in 2016, up from the 51 percent of 2015 cases that were cleared.

The department’s Juvenile Bureau was assigned 265 cases in 2016 and cleared 63 percent of them. In 2015, the bureau was assigned 524 cases and cleared 91 percent of them, according to the department’s statistics.

The department’s Uniform Patrol Division received 67,787 service calls in 2016, down from the 73,188 in 2015.

The number of motor vehicle summonses issued by township police also decreased for the third consecutive year in 2016, to 5,973 from 6.243 in 2015, according to the statistics.

That 2016 total included 850 parking violations, 5,085 non-parking violations and 38 DWI citations.

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Sources: Franklin Township Police Department Annual Reports for 2015 and 2016; New Jersey State Police Uniform Crime Report for 2015.

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