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Violent crime declines in Oregon From staff and wire reports PORTLAND - The number of violent crimes fell in Oregon last year, but property crimes increased enough to raise the overall crime level by 0.8 percent in 2000, statistics show. Crime rates in Jackson County followed a similar trend. In 2000, local law enforcement agencies reported a slight drop in violent crimes while property crimes and fraud cases increased. The numbers follow a national trend that indicates a decade-long drop in crime may be bottoming out. Preliminary state statistics for 2000 show violent crimes - such as homicide, rape, kidnapping, assault, sexual assault and robbery - fell 2.4 percent. Property crimes increased 1.8 percent, with fraud leading the way with a 14.8 percent increase over the year before. A police spokesman in Medford, where fraud crimes doubled from 1999, said much of that increase is the result of more fraud cases being considered criminal rather than civil matters. In Jackson County, crimes against people dropped .5 percent in 2000, while crimes against property rose 3.3 percent. Statistics also show a 9.5 percent increase in behavioral crimes (such as liquor law violations, domestic abuse, gambling), resulting in an overall 5.6 percent increase in crime county-wide. Jeff Bock, supervisor of the Oregon Uniform Crime Reporting Program cautioned that the state figures are incomplete because some police agencies did not report their crime statistics each month as required by state law. Tribal police agencies, which consider themselves part of a sovereign nation exempt from state and federal laws, stopped reporting their crime data in 2000, and other agencies' numbers were incomplete because of Y2K computer glitches. "I honestly don't know if what we're seeing is a Y2K glitch or if we are seeing true increases in crime," Bock said. Nationally, crime dropped by 0.3 percent in the United States during the first six months of 2000 compared to the same period in 1999. That's the smallest decrease recorded in the country since crime began falling in 1992, according to available figures from the FBI. The Oregon statistics also indicate that: Clackamas, Lane, Marion, Multnomah and Washington counties made up 59.7 percent of the state's population and accounted for 61.3 percent of its crime. Homicides dropped 24.4 percent, from 86 in 1999 to 65 in 2000. Aggravated assault fell 8.5 percent, from 8,416 in 1999 to 7,703 last year. Rape increased 2.7 percent, from 1,244 in 1999 to 1,277. Of the 12,575 fraud cases, credit-card fraud rose 48 percent, from 2,190 in 1999 to 3,250 in 2000. The number of arrests for fraud increased only 9.9 percent. The state recorded 19,119 domestic violence offenses in 2000, with 173 agencies reporting out of approximately 200. That's up 12 percent from 1999, but only 152 agencies reported their domestic violence figures in 1999, so the comparison is incomplete, Bock said. Medford police released their 2000 crime statistics in February. The department noted an overall drop in robberies and burglary reports. Lt. Tim George credited the trend to basic "nuts and bolts" police work and an increase in community involvement and neighborhood watch groups. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.