By Cheryl Skinner

Missouri City council members heard a status report on the 2009 crime statistics that show crimes against citizens were down substantially. However, burglary and theft crimes increased, largely due to a faltering economy, said Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald emphasized that crimes against citizens, which include aggravated robbery and assault, were down. Fitzgerald attributed a double digit reduction in those crimes to increased public safety initiatives.
He said Proactive Traffic Enforcement was a priority, resulting in only a nominal increase in accident calls from 2008 to 2009.

“We are in neighborhoods more often and we’re also doing a very good job of ensuring the streets are safe and traffic flows safely,” Fitzgerald said.

He also noted that for the first time in many years the department is fully staffed; there has been a switch to 10-hour patrol shifts to ensure there is no gap in community coverage; and cold cases are being reviewed.

“First and foremost, we are taking cases that involve violence and bringing those cases back to life,” Fitzgerald said, adding, “We are seeing if there are some modern techniques available to solve these cases.”

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