By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Police report crime in the city was at its lowest level in a decade last year.
The Bloomington Police Department’s annual crime report shows a near 12-percent crop in crime from 2014. This accounts for homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault and battery, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
Police say there were no homicides in the city last year after there were three in 2014. That was Bloomington’s first homicide-free year since 1997. Aggravated batteries were down 15 percent. The most notable increase was in robberies which rose 40 percent from the previous year.
“Our community is a safer place thanks to citizen involvement and the outstanding work and dedication of our officers and employees,” said Bloomington Police Chief Brendan Heffner.
The police department’s report can be found at www.cityblm.org/police.
Heffner outlined the department’s priorities, which include beginning to try officer-worn body cameras, increasing efforts to reduce juvenile crime and offender recidivism, increasing department-wide awareness training in cultural diversity and expanding the use of anti-crime technologies such as additional public safety cameras.
Eric Stock can be reached at eric.stock@cumulus.com.
