Chattanooga Police Department Chief Freeman Cooper applauded his officers Wednesday for their work keeping crime down over the last year, but warned that without new hires crime could increase.
“It’s been said already that it appears that we can do more with less,” Chief Cooper said. “It gets to a point where they (police) break.”
Part 1 crimes — which include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft — decreased by 1.3 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to Chief Cooper’s annual report to the city. There were 19 reported homicides last year compared to 20 in 2008, the report states.
In Part 1 crimes — which are reported to the FBI and used for local, state and national crime trend studies — only robbery and burglary saw an increase in Chattanooga, with each rising 4 percent.
Based on Tennessee Bureau of Investigation numbers, Part 1 crimes in Chattanooga are down by 28 percent over the last eight years.