2009 Part I and Part II Crimes compared to 2008:
Aggravated Assault:
11 in 2009
12 in 2008 (down 1)
Arson:
1 in 2009
0 in 2008 (up 1);
Auto Theft:
16 in 2009
34 in 2008 (down 18)
Burglary:
77 in 2009
93 in 2008 (down 16)
Homicide:
2 in 2009
0 in 2008 (up 2)
Larceny:
745 in 2009
800 in 2008 (down 55)
Rape:
7 in 2009
4 in 2008 (up 3)
Robbery:
10 in 2009
22 in 2008 (down 12).
Overall, Part I crimes dropped from 965 in 2008 to 869 in 2009 or a decrease of 9.9%. Part II crimes dropped from 1,668 in 2008 to 1,572 in 2009 or a decrease of 5.7%.
Traffic crashes increased from 1,422 in 2008 to 1,580 in 2009. We stopped red light camera enforcement in March of 2009 and since that point, crashes have increased 10%.
Personally, I don't think the entire traffic crash increase is due to not using the red light camera enforcement. The amount of talking on cell phone or texting while driving has certainly increased, and that would cause more accidents too. Just throwing that possibility out there! Only about 9 U.S. states have cell phone/texting while driving bans.
Georgia is one of them that doesn't. I think we should have a law against cell phone use/texting while driving. You can pull off the road to do that (and that includes reading and eating.) It only takes one moment looking down for a terrible accident to happen.
If you think you can eat, read, text message, and talk on the cell phone while driving, let me ask you...if you decided to take a commercial airline flight, would you be okay with your airline pilot doing any of those things? I'm certain you would not be okay with that. You would probably want that pilot fired!
So why do you think that you, a person without the professional piloting experience and training that an airline pilot has - you think you can drive distracted and it's okay? A distracted driver is just as bad and worse in some cases than a drunk driver.
Just think on that a bit. Thanks.
(Update: the City of Lawrenceville just renewed their red light enforcement camera contract)
