New Jersey State Police’s annual Uniform Crime Report shows a decrease in crime in Hamilton Township.
Police data from January to May 2014 shows an 11 percent drop in the overall crime during the same time period last year.
The Hamilton Police Division must submit this data to the New Jersey State Police for its annual Uniform Crime Report on a monthly basis.
According to the report, rapes dropped 25 percent, assaults dropped 17.1 percent, burglaries dropped 21.8 percent and larceny dropped 19.4 percent. The instances of violent crimes was 8.8 percent lower than last year and non-violent crimes dropped 17.5 percent.
Police Chief James W. Collins thinks the division’s crime prevention program, like its Community Policing Unit’s free confidently residential security surveys, led to lower crime rates.
“I strongly believe that the efforts of our officers and detectives, as well as pro-active strategies, have led to a decrease in crime,” Collins said in a statement.
This year, the police division revamped its website and created an official Facebook page and twitter handle as part of comprehensive initiative to promote communication with residents to help improve public safety and anti-crime efforts and information.
The website features a virtual neighborhood watch page, police news feed, confidential tip line, online ticket payment and a page to report streetlight outages.
