Is Athens more dangerous lately? Police say stats don't show that

Walking the streets of Athens doesn't seem as safe as it used to be. Over the past month, violent or serious crimes have included an aggravated robbery behind McCracken Hall on the Ohio University campus, an attempted burglary on East State Street, what appear to be related assault cases in Fern Alley and at the OU Athletics Mall, an assault and battery on West Washington Street, and most recently, yesterday's daytime robbery of the Coldstone Creamery on North Court Street.

Despite the individual crime incidents, however, local police say statistics don't appear to back up any significant local rise in these types of crimes.

Details of the incidents are as follows:

"¢ Nicolas M. Dowler, 20, of Salem Road, Athens, was arraigned on an aggravated robbery charge on Monday in Athens County Municipal Court for his alleged role in the McCracken Hall incident. Police say early Saturday morning a white, college-aged man approached a 21-year-old woman behind McCracken Hall on OU's East Green.

The man grabbed her purse after brandishing what appeared to be a box-cutter and jumped into a waiting truck driven by another man. Two men then used the victim's credit card at the Speedway on Richland Avenue minutes later and left in a similar truck, according to police. Bryon C. Ely, 21, of New Marshfield has also been arrested and charged with aggravated robbery in the incident.

"¢ Two OU students reported that a 6-foot-tall college-aged man with a dark complexion assaulted them in separate incidents on Sept. 20, one in Fern Alley and the other at the Athletics Mall hours earlier. One woman told police that the man, who could be Latino or of mixed race, made multiple attempts to grab her, while another woman told Athens police that a similar-looking man grabbed her buttocks in Fern Alley the same night.

"¢ Sunday night at around 10, an 18-year-old OU student from Athens said he was assaulted on West Washington Street by an unknown male subject. A witness stated that she observed a white male, 5'10 to 6' tall, medium build, wearing a plaid shirt with a hood on his head, strike the victim in the head and knock him to the ground. The witness said she heard a bottle break but was not sure if the subject had hit the male student with a bottle or not, according to police reports. However, the victim confirmed Wednesday that the attacker broke a bottle over his head.

The witness then reportedly yelled at the attacker and he jumped into the front passenger side of a white Mitzubishi Exclipse. The OU student, who had received a laceration to the side of the head, was transported to the O'Bleness Hospital emergency room for treatment. The victim later told The NEWS that he had eight staples placed in his head, to bind up the wound. The attacker stole his wallet and another item, the victim said.

"¢ Late Wednesday morning, Athens Police reported a daytime armed robbery at the Coldstone Creamery on Court Street. The suspect was described as a white male, 6-feet tall and 160 pounds wearing a white T-shirt and gray sweats, with tanned skin and a goatee.

EVEN WITH THESE INCIDENTS cropping up, figures released by the Athens Police Department show a decrease in assault cases between 2007 and 2008, with that decrease projected to continue this year. Assault cases steadily rose between 2004 and 2007, from 130 cases to 165. But in 2008 that number went down to 117, for a five-year average of 143.6 per year.

Burglary cases have been less predictable, rising and falling with each year, while disorderly conduct cases rose between 2004 and 2006 before beginning a steady decline.

Athens Police Capt. Tom Pyle said he couldn't speculate as to the cause of these changes or the reason for the recent rash of violent crimes. The Athens NEWS has run several reports about the influx of drugs into the area. At least one of the suspects in these cases, Dowler, told Athens County Municipal Judge William Grim that he is "bad off on drugs," requesting time in rehab.

Pyle, however, said that a direct correlation between violent crime and drug use could not be drawn.

"If you're trying to run a story that says that drug use is rampant and because of that crime is up, I just don't think that there's statistics to back that up," Pyle said. "Even if the stats were that assaults are through the roof this year, there's nothing to link that to drug use."

Nevertheless, a study by the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics on the violent victimization of college students between 1995 and 2000 showed that, overall, 41 percent of violent crimes committed against college students and 38 percent committed against non-students were committed by an offender perceived to be using drugs. Also, the study showed that about two in five of all rape/sexual assaults and about a quarter of all robberies against a college student were committed by an offender perceived to be using drugs.

Pyle said that there are too many socioeconomic factors that go into crime and crime rates to be able to point to just one thing and say that it's the root cause. While there's no doubt that hard drug use in Athens County is on the rise, Pyle speculated that the economy might explain why assaults are actually down this year. Talking to bar owners, Pyle said that there just aren't as many people going out to the bars these days. This leads to fewer people uptown, fewer fights, and therefore a decrease in assaults, he said.

Pyle also said that there is a strong correlation between OU's passage of a stricter alcohol and drug policy in 2007 and the decline in crime statistics in areas such as disorderly conduct. (This is despite the fact that OU students themselves still report that drinking is common in the dorms.)

Meanwhile, Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly said that he believes that crime rates haven't gone up but instead have become more visible.

"Now we have a more proactive sheriff's office, and we're dealing with the problems that are there," Kelly said. "There's nothing new happening... Crimes have been happening for decades. It's just that they haven't been dealt with, and now we are going after these people who are committing violent crimes, and that was a campaign promise I made, and we're dealing with the problems, and I think that's why they seem more visible."

Kelly did say, however, that a poor economy does lead to more crimes such as breaking and entering as well as drug use.

Former Sheriff Vern Castle said that he believes other administrations including his own dealt with everything they could as best they could. He said that he hasn't seen where Kelly is doing any great job so far.

"I honestly don't know what to say, he's a loud mouth who runs his mouth, that's all he's ever been," Castle said. "He's just running his mouth, blowing his own horn, that's all he's doing."