The number of felony cases handled in Starkville Municipal Court hit a five-year high in 2016, while cases for driving under the influence dropped to a five-year low, statistics released by the city show.
Starkville’s court system handled a total of 9,370 cases last year, which was its second-lowest amount since 2005.
Of last year’s caseload, 242 were felonies. That amount edges out the previous five-year high of 241 in 2012. Comparatively, 190 felony cases were brought before Judge Rodney Faver last year.
The number of misdemeanors dropped to a five-year low in 2016, as the court reported 1,124 new cases. The second-lowest total in that timeframe was 1,150, which was recorded in 2012.
The city reported 313 DUI arrests in 2016, which is down from 2015’s mark of 383. Comparatively, the city recorded 502 DUI arrests in 2011, and Starkville’s yearly total has remained below the 400 mark since 2013.
Theft, burglary, robbery cases triple
While drug-related crimes and aggravated assaults made up a majority of municipal court’s 2015 felony cases, a new category surged ahead and claimed last year’s top spot: thefts, burglaries and robberies.
The court system saw 97 of those crimes in 2016 — 40 percent of the overall felony caseload — which more than tripled 2015’s mark of 31 cases.
New aggravated assault cases (23) declined by about 50 percent from 2015, while new drug-related felonies dropped from 53 to 29 cases.
In the last two weeks, Starkville Police Department has received six reports of residential burglaries, two reports of commercial burglaries and seven reports of auto burglaries.
SPD Public Information Officer Brandon Lovelady acknowledged the uptick in burglaries in the past year and said combating the crime can be as simple as residents proactively locking up their homes and automobiles and reporting suspicious activity.
Many criminals are simply “pulling door handles” of parked vehicles, Lovelady said, to see whether or not they were locked by their owner. This tactic allows thieves to take items from the automobile without attracting attention, he said.
“There are very few cases of someone breaking a window, but it does happen. That’s usually when someone sees something of value in the vehicle,” Lovelady said. “Always lock your doors and always secure your valuables by either bringing them inside or by keeping them out of sight.
“If you see something, say something,” he added. “You know what’s suspicious in your neighborhood. If something is wrong, out of place or suspicious, let us know.”
Seatbelt, child restraint citations up
Last year also marked a significant uptick in citations written for drivers not wearing their seatbelts or a lack of child restraints.
While SPD wrote only 64 more traffic citations in 2016 than the previous year, the amount of seatbelt and child restraint tickets increased from 1,349 to 1,765.
Lovelady didn’t have exact figures on-hand Friday but said a majority of those tickets were likely written for the seatbelt infraction, not a lack of proper child restraints.
The increase in tickets, he said, could be due to increased enforcement efforts or simply because more people are choosing not to wear their seatbelts.
Parents wanting an official certified in child seat installations to inspect their work can visit Starkville Fire Department Station No. 1.
In all, SPD wrote 8,004 traffic citations in 2016. Since 2010, the total amount of tickets written has broken the 10,000 mark twice: 2011 (11,219) and 2012 (11,461). The department averaged about 8,000 tickets in the other years.
Last year’s total also includes 1,434 tickets for speeding (up from 2015’s 1,063 mark), 660 for no or suspended driver’s license (up from 645), 448 for running a red light or stop sign (down from 581) and 313 for misdemeanor DUI (down from 383).
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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