Criminal arrests on the rise,
but drug arrests stable
By Queenie Wong
Data from the Community-Based Correction Plan published Feb. 26 by Moseley Architects
The number of adult arrests in relatively safe and quiet Rockbridge County, Buena Vista and Lexington has increased by 70 percent within five years, according to a report on the proposed expansion of the county jail.
State police statistics, on which the report was based, indicate that Rockbridge County is the primary contributor to this rise – with 413 more arrests in 2005 than in 2001. That is a 163 percent jump in arrests.
Rockbridge County arrests include those by the sheriff’s department as well as those by Virginia state police and in Glasgow.
The top law enforcement officials in Rockbridge County and Buena Vista, looking over the numbers, suggested possible factors but could not offer a definitive explanation for the increase in arrests.
Sheriff Bob Day, for example, suggested chance might have been a factor in his department’s solving more cases.
“I don't know if it's either a rabbit's foot or a stroke of luck, but we've been clearing more cases,” he said.
Combined with Lexington’s and Buena Vista’s statistics, the number of adult arrests per year rose by 441, the report says.
The report, published in February by the national planning firm Moseley Architects, contained a detailed study of criminal justice trends from 2001 to 2005.
Less serious crimes, mostly alcohol-related offenses, account for more than twice as many arrests and showed the greatest increase. These categories of crime, covering 739 local arrests in 2005, shot up 81.6 percent in the five-year period.
However, one of the more serious types of crime, larceny, or theft, showed the most dramatic increase. It rose five-fold, from 17 arrests in 2001 to 85 five years later.
Norman Westerberg, manager of incident-based reporting for the state police, said that a rise in larceny arrests could reflect the jump in gasoline prices in 2004 and 2005, as more customers skipped out on their payments at self-service gas stations.
Burglary, vandalism and simple assault, also considered serious crimes, accounted for much of the increase as well, although drug and narcotics offenses went down.
Alcohol- and drug-related crimes combined represented 44.6 percent of all arrests in 2005.
Buena Vista Police Chief A. J. Panebianco said that he believes better training offered by the Central Virginia Criminal Justice Academy, to which his department belongs and where he teaches, may account for more arrests in his department.
The number of yearly arrests in Buena Vista rose by 24.
“Since [the academy] started, there’s been a constant effort to increase the knowledge level that is passed on,” Panebianco said.
From July 2004 to June 2005, Buena Vista arrests accounted for 25.01 percent of the days spent in jail, Rockbridge County 69.36 percent and Lexington 5.63 percent, according to a spreadsheet provided by the county jail.
But overall, police statistics show that Lexington had 76 more arrests than Buena Vista in 2005. The Lexington Police Department did not show any noticeable change in the number of arrests in the last five years.
According to the U.S. Census, Lexington had slightly less than 6,900 residents in 2000. Buena Vista had about 6,400.
Lexington Police Chief Steve Crowder would not comment.
The report noted that the number of police officers during the five years studied increased by only three, so that could not account for much of the rise in arrests. However, turnover might play a role.
Panebianco said that as older officers retire, less experienced officers tend to conduct more traffic enforcement. That may account for the increase in the number of less serious offenses, he said.
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Brian Richardson
Reporting supervisors:
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd