Report: Crime on the rise
By LEE PROCIDA
Cherry Hill Sun
10/25/2007

Township Uniform Crime Report shows increase in violent and non-violent crime

The crime rate increased about 11 percent in Cherry Hill in 2006, according to the recently released Uniform Crime Report by the state Department of Law and Public Safety.

Violent crime increased to 107 incidents from 102 in 2005, while non-violent crime increased from 2,038 to 2,269. This increased Cherry Hill’s crime rate to 33.1 crimes per 1,000 residents in 2006, up from 29.8 in 2005.

Police Lt. William Kushina noted the numbers presented in the UCR can be misinterpreted and skewed.

“Those numbers don’t really say a lot,” he said. “You have to look at the totality of the numbers to really see what’s going on.

“You can say crime went up 10 percent and that sounds like a lot. But if there were two murders this year, murders would have gone up 100 percent. That’s kind of misleading.”

Kushina said many factors can alter the crime rate in Cherry Hill every year. A close proximity to Camden can affect crime here, as well as a large influx of people during daytime hours.

“Also, if you look at the crime rates over the past 10 years, there are ebbs and flows,” he said.

The average crime rate in Camden County rose 6 percent to 39.3 crimes per 1,000 people. Cherry Hill had the 12th-highest crime rate out of 37 municipalities in Camden County.

“But when you’re looking at all the numbers and factors, we’re one of the safest towns in Camden County,” Kushina said.

The UCR is mandated by the federal government to be completed by each state every year as a way for the FBI to analyze general crime statistics. It is typically released seven to nine months after the year-ends.

For a complete breakdown of crimes by category, municipality and county, UCR reports dating back to 1998 and other information such as likely causes for increases and decreases in crime, residents can download a copy of the UCR on the New Jersey State Police Web site at www.njsp.org/info/stats.html.