Hoover had 11 percent drop in reported crime in 2018

The number of crimes reported in Hoover in 2018 was down 11 percent from the year before, including a 22 percent drop in drug crimes and 40 percent drop in weapons law violations, statistics released by the Hoover Police Department show.

The total number of offenses reported by or to police was 4,617 in 2018, compared to 5,196 in 2017, records show. Arrests were up 2.4 percent from 3,430 to 3,513.

Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis said Hoover’s crime numbers are very low for a city with an estimated population of 85,000.

He’s particularly proud that violent felony crimes make up less than 3 percent of the overall offenses.

“We think that’s really fantastic, and we hope to be able to continue that,” Derzis said. “I think our personnel do an incredible job. I think everybody from the civilians to the sworn police officers — everybody has a part.”

Another reason for the low crime rate is the great relationship between the Police Department and the community, Derzis said.

“It’s not something we take for granted,” he said. “It’s something we work very hard to gain their trust, and I think it shows.”

People in the community show a lot of support for the work police do and are very helpful when police ask the community for help in finding suspects, he said. It’s amazing how quickly they get responses when they post photos on social media of suspects who have committed crimes, he said.

Derzis also credited police officers and other police employees for thinking outside the box to fight crime. They do a lot of things they can’t share because they don’t want criminals to know how they solve crimes, he said.

“I wish there was a recipe for success that we could point to all the time, but a lot of our work is just old-fashioned police work combined with new initiatives,” he said.

One new trend that has been helpful in fighting crime is the popularity of doorbell cameras at people’s homes, Derzis said. In years past, video footage typically was only available at businesses, but more and more people are adding video security systems and doorbell cameras, and that is proving helpful in solving crimes, he said. “I wish more people had them.”

DECLINE IN DRUG CRIMES

There were 755 offenses involving drugs or drug paraphernalia in Hoover in 2018, compared to 972 in 2017, records show.

Police Lt. Keith Czeskleba said he’d like to be able to claim this is evidence that police efforts to combat illegal drug use are having an impact, but police really don’t know the reason for the decline.

“It’s not that we’ve backed off of our efforts as far as trying to make drug cases,” Czeskleba said. “Our focus and strategy has been the same. We still have investigators assigned to investigate drug crimes, and patrol officers are trying to be proactive in traffic stops, which can result in drug arrests.”

The number of drug overdoses reported to authorities dropped from 57 in 2017 to 46 in 2018, and there were 12 people who died from drug overdoses in Hoover in 2018, just one more than in 2017, Czeskleba said.

He speculated that the number of drug overdoses hasn’t really dropped, just the number of people reporting overdoses.

Narcan, a nasal spray used in emergency treatment of opioid overdose patients, is now available to the general public, so people may choose not to call the Fire Department when an overdose occurs if they have the spray on hand, he said.

The number of weapons law violations dropped from 81 in 2017 to 49 in 2018, which Czeskleba said is a significant decrease.

He said he didn’t know if people are just getting better about getting the proper permits for their guns, but the bottom line is that police are seeing fewer people carrying guns who aren’t supposed to be carrying them.

Perhaps the concerted effort by the U.S. attorney’s office to increase prosecutions for federal firearms violations has had an impact, he said.

LOW ROBBERY RATE

Czeskleba said one of the most interesting things he saw in the 2018 crime stats is that Hoover continued to have a remarkably low rate of robberies for a city with an estimated 85,000 people.

There were 34 robberies reported in Hoover in 2018, one less than in 2017. But 34 robberies is much less than 15 years ago, when Hoover broke the 100 mark in robberies for the first time. “We’re certainly grateful for that,” Czeskleba said.

Out of those 34 robberies, eight of them were shoplifting cases that turned into a robbery when the suspect physically struggled with a loss prevention officer, he said.

And Hoover was able to obtain charges against suspects in 62 percent of the robbery cases in 2018, Czeskleba said. That compares to a national clearance rate of about 35 percent, he said.

Shoplifting as a whole was down 21 percent from 952 cases in 2017 to 755 in 2018, records show.

Czeskleba said he had no explanation for that decline. Police depend on merchants to report shoplifting, and “we still get shoplifting calls probably about every day to some place,” he said.

Shoplifting is a form of theft, and overall theft offenses decreased 10 percent in 2018, from 2,055 to 1,854.

HOMICIDES

Hoover had four homicides in 2018, compared to three the year before.

The first two occurred on May 11 at The Cliffs at Rocky Ridge apartment complex. Two men reportedly tried to rob 22-year-old Tavarius Jamal Bryant outside his apartment when Bryant pulled a gun and shot one of the robbers, Czeskleba said. That robber, 25-year-old Christopher Bryant of Memphis, was dropped off at Princeton Baptist Medical Center and pronounced dead on arrival, police said. But Tavarius Bryant also was shot and killed in the course of the robbery.

Authorities ended up charging 28-year-old Oscar Lee Woods III with capital murder in the shooting of Tavarius Bryant and felony murder in connection with Christopher Bryant’s death.

Alabama law allows a person to be charged with felony murder if, during the commission of a felony crime, one of the participants in the crime is killed. That case is still pending.

Hoover’s third homicide happened on Oct. 21, when 23-year-old Darryl Lavon Seay was shot in the neck during what police said was a drug transaction gone awry at The Park at Hoover apartment complex. Authorities charged a 14-year-old Alabaster boy with capital murder, and the case is still pending in family court, Czeskleba said.

The final homicide of the year was on Thanksgiving night, when a Hoover police officer shot and killed 21-year-old Emantic “E.J.” Bradford Jr. of Hueytown while responding to another shooting inside the Riverchase Galleria. The shooting of Bradford led to protests in the streets and at Hoover businesses and other locations by people who claim the shooting was unjustified. The State Bureau of Investigation is handling the case, as well as investigating the shooting of two other people in the mall that night.

OTHER CRIMES

There was a 23 percent drop in sex offenses in Hoover in 2018, from 39 to 30. That included 16 rapes, 9 instances of fondling, four forcible sodomy cases and one case involving sexual assault with an object. The biggest decline was in fondling cases, which dropped from 16 to nine. Czeskleba said most of these offenses occur in residences and are committed by people known to the victims. About 50 percent involve juveniles, he said.

Embezzlement cases were down 30 percent, from 80 to 56, and fraud offenses declined 16 percent, from 423 to 357.

Czeskleba said he doesn’t think there is necessarily less fraud occurring. It probably is just not getting reported to police as much, he said.

Credit card companies have gotten very good at detecting fraud to stop it at the point of transaction and are quick to refund people their money when their credit cards get stolen, Czeskleba said. Some people, once they get their money back, don’t bother to report the incident to police, he said.

Older people are still the biggest targets for financial scams and sometimes are too embarrassed to report that they were victimized, Czeskleba said. But he stresses to people that they need to report these crimes so police can try to hold offenders accountable.

“We certainly don’t know it’s happening if it doesn’t get reported to us,” he said.

The biggest crime increase, from a percentage standpoint, was in motor vehicle theft. There were 95 motor vehicle thefts in 2018, up 12 percent from 85 in 2017. The average for Hoover is about 90 in a year, Czeskleba said.

With advanced technology, it’s supposed to be harder to steal a vehicle than it was in the 1980s and early 1990s, Czeskleba said. In many newer vehicles, people have to have the key to steal it, but that’s still not always the case, he said.

Most motor vehicle thefts occur at apartment complexes and single-family homes, though there also are a number of vehicles stolen from car dealerships during test drives, Czeskleba said. Police get called to the Riverchase Galleria frequently for reports of stolen vehicles, but usually people have just forgotten where they parked, he said. “It happens all the time.”

This article was updated at 4:10 p.m. to correct a quote from Chief Nick Derzis. The chief said he is proud that violent felony crimes in Hoover make up less than 3 percent of the overall number of offenses.