The Prairie Village police department has released its final crime report for 2010, showing that the department responded to nearly 19 percent more incidents than it had in 2009.
There were a total of 819 reported crimes in 2010. There were 691 in 2009.
The numbers show that residential burglaries in the area have held steady in the area for the past three years, but are significantly higher than they were in 2007, before the financial crisis.
There were 68 residential burglaries reported in both 2010 and 2009, and 66 in 2008. Those numbers are up significantly from the 24 and 16 reported in 2007 and 2006, respectively.
Police Chief Wes Jordan told the City Council earlier this month that the department believed the vast majority of the burglaries were being carried out by people coming across the state line from Kansas City, Mo.
“Our proximity to Kansas City has posed a problem for our community since I’ve been here because it makes it very difficult to investigate crimes,” Jordan said. “From a jurisdiction perspective, it’s kind of like having a border with another country.”
Criminal damage, including the wave of graffiti vandalism that hit Prairie Village this fall, accounted for the largest increase in reported crimes. There were 262 incidents in 2010, up from 156 in 2009 and 88 in 2008.
Assaults were up significantly as well. There were 105 reported incidents in Prairie Village in 2010, up from 73 in 2009 and 74 in 2008.
Jordan told the city council earlier this month that domestic incidents accounted for most of that increase. As a result, the city’s crime prevention officer was for the first time ever doing follow-up work with victims of the most serious domestic cases in hopes of preventing repeat offenses.
Over the same period, crime in Mission Hills decreased by 48 percent. There were 106 reported incidents in Mission Hills in 2009, and 55 in 2010. The improvement is attributable to significant decreases in burglary (15 in 2009, 3 in 2010); theft (53 in 2009, 24 in 2010); and criminal damage (27 in 1009, 19 in 2010).
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