For the second consecutive year, crime has decreased in Mt. Laurel Township.
According to the state police’s Uniform Crime Report, crime in Mt. Laurel decreased 10.5 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year. There were 769 crimes reported in 2014 compared to 859 in 2013.
The township saw an overall decrease mainly thanks to a large drop in burglaries and thefts. Total burglaries were down 24.5 percent last year and thefts were down 7.9 percent.
Lt. Stephen Riedener of the Mt. Laurel Police Department said they have been able to crack down on some theft thanks to a database tracking all transactions of secondhand goods in the township. A company named Business Watch International maintains the database, which Mt. Laurel and numerous other surrounding municipalities use.
Since Mt. Laurel began used the database in October 2013, the police department has been able to track pawn shops and other secondhand sellers where criminals may have tried to sell stolen goods.
“What that does for us is our detectives and officers can query this database,” Riedener said. “Even if someone is selling something in Mt. Laurel, it could have been stolen from somewhere else.”
Mt. Laurel Police has received help from other police departments with tracking stolen goods. Riedener said more cases have been solved thanks to the database.
“That helped in clearing some of our cases,” he said. “We had some success with that this year.”
Cooperation between police departments in general has helped to crack down on burglaries. Mt. Laurel Police frequently communicate with other agencies whenever it sees a string of similar crimes in their town.
“There’s a lot of cooperation with the towns around here,” Riedener said. “Burglars generally don’t stay in one town, they go from town to town.”
Mt. Laurel Police keeps a database of all of the crime reports it receives from residents. Its records database is used to pinpoint trending crimes.
“We query the data in the record management system,” Riedener said. “We can see if there’s clusters of a particular crime or event.”
The police also use their records to see if any areas of the township are more susceptible to crimes.
“We have a couple of target areas in town where we target and where we put our people into,” Riedener said. “It’s a more efficient use of manpower.”
The police department uses the Uniform Crime Report as a way to track how certain crimes are trending from year to year. However, Riedener said the statistics can sometimes be misleading.
“If you have a very prolific burglar or thief, they can contribute to your numbers drastically,” he said.
There was very little change in the other sub-categories. Mt. Laurel had 28 violent crimes in 2014, the same number as in the previous year. Simple assault was also down 4.4 percent and motor vehicle theft decreased 20 percent.
To see the full Uniform Crime Report for Mt. Laurel and other municipalities in New Jersey, visit www.njsp.org/info/ucr_currentdata.html.
