Downtown Augusta crime data show decrease in downtown since SMART unit (2015, store)

[Airforceguy]

Hopefully this trend continues....

A comparison of crimes from a 14-month period – May 2013 to June 2014, before the Safety Management and Response Team started – to a 14-month period after – July 2014 to this August – showed a decrease in six of nine major crime categories: robbery, assault, burglary, arson, motor vehicle theft and kidnapping. Sexual assaults, larceny-thefts and homicides increased slightly.
“It gives people a sense of comfort,” DeLaigle Hickman, retail store supervisor at Fireside, an outdoor kitchen and grill store at 1246 Broad St., said of the unit.
Richmond County Sheriff Richard Rountree introduced SMART in April 2014 after a troubling year for downtown. Downtown safety was brought to the forefront after a couple was assaulted with a baseball bat and robbed in July 2013 while ending their first date with a walk on Riverwalk Augusta. That same night, a man leaving Riverfront Pub was knocked unconscious and his car stolen. Three men were eventually arrested and sentenced to prison for the crimes.

Downtown Augusta crime data show decrease in downtown since SMART unit | The Augusta Chronicle