Crime Drops in Joplin in December
By: Gretchen Bolander
Updated: January 4, 2013
JOPLIN, MO-- From stolen purses and phones to missing electronics... thefts from vehicles went up in Joplin in December. Joplin saw 50 cases of theft from vehicles - a 19% increase compared to December of last year. But every other category stayed the same or dropped, leading to six percent drop month to month.
Joplin Police Chief Lane Roberts says that thefts from vehicles traditionally do go up in December with the holiday season... and that the increase could be related to the tornado recovery. "Compared to this December where hopefully our retail was up quite a bit and people were having better Christmases this year than last. Which means that theft from vehicle was likely to make an increase because there's more targets to choose from."
Violent crime saw the biggest drop ... from 64 cases in December 2011 to 45 in December 2012.
