Crime Prevention is a Team Sport
As we see the light of Spring heading our way crime prevention continues to be a team sport. Preventing crime is a community responsibility. With 681 arrests made by the Parsons Police Department last year, your police staff is doing their part. But 54.91% of those arrested were arrested more than once in 2021. Two of these criminals were arrested over 12 times. The Courts also have to shoulder responsibility to provide deterrence to crime.
Crime is down to half of what it was over a decade ago. Our community's biggest crime threat is domestic violence - misdemeanor domestic violence, felony aggravated assault domestic violence and half of the homicides in the past decade were domestic violence related.
Remove domestic violence from our community and those high per capita violent crime rates drop. Each year there are about 70 to 90 reported violent crimes in Parsons (murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) - on average 75% to 95% of all violent crime in Parsons involves an aggravated assault mostly domestic violence. This is not new - it been a 20-year reality.
Crime data is collected by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) for the Uniform Crime Report (UCR), before it is sent to the FBI. UCR crime only includes murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
2020 Total UCR Crime Reported: 499 crimes ranking Parsons 26th in State
2020 Total Property Crime Reported: 406 crime ranking Parsons 28th in State
2020 Total Violent Crime Reported: 93 crime ranking Parsons 18th in State
Did you know that:
Wichita had 24,924 UCR Crimes,
Kansas City 9,362,
Topeka 6,862,
Overland Park 4,422, and
Lawrence 2,995?
To see how other Kansas communities rank in actual crime go to the Parsons Crime Clock page on the police website here.
Parsonians are stepping up - we saw a surge in 2021 with more calls to the police. Not necessarily an increase in crime, but a rise in citizens reporting the suspicious, the unusual and taking more responsibility in eyeballing their own neighborhood.
With a small policing staff, having all members of the community being part of the crime prevention team is critical. If you see something suspicious, we encourage you to immediately share that observation with our dispatch center by calling 620-421-7060, 24 hours-a-day. Having the eyes and ears of all 10,000 residents being watchful is a significant deterrent to crime and when crime does occur; having those witnessing eyes available to the police can mean the difference between a successful resolution or an unsolved case.
What can you do to make our community safer? The National Crime Prevention Council suggests:
Use your locks. Even the best locks on a car, dorm room, house or apartment cannot protect you if you don't use them
Don't leave valuables unattended and in plain view in your car. Secure valuables in your trunk, especially if you leave your car parked for long periods in town.
Secure your spare key. Leave your spare key with a trusted neighbor. Leaving a key unattended under a door mat is an invitation for a burglar who will also be looking for obvious key locations to enter your home.
Let there be light. Make sure all outside entrances to your residence or apartment have good lighting so burglars can't easily hide.
Our business is a team sport, and we always need you on the team!
For more information on crime prevention, visit www.ncpc.org . To learn more about policing in Parsons visit our web site at parsonspd.com .
