A look at the tally of nonviolent crimes committed in the city and county in 2014 uncover a majority of reported burglaries for the city and a large number of traffic accidents in the county.

It is important to note for each set of data that the actual events upon arrival to the site of a call may be different than what the call was received and categorized as – for example, an aggravated assault call may become a simple assault upon investigation or result in any other alternative complaint, minor or major. Therefore the type of call may have changed once the responding officer investigated the complaint and data represented here may not accurately reflect the exact nature of each event to which the respective offices responded.

In 2014 crime reports recently released from the Brookhaven Police Department and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office nonviolent crimes – including everything from disturbing the peace to traffic accidents to grand larceny – accounted for 92 percent of all calls for the city and 99.4 percent of all calls for the county.

“Last year we saw a spike in property crimes,” Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing said. “That’s about 90 percent of what we deal with.”

Rushing said there’s usually a spike in property crimes during the winter season, especially around Christmas. He said it wasn’t a huge spike; however, it was noticeable.

Out of 8,502 total calls to the Sheriff’s Office the type with the highest frequency were under the label general complaints, which includes everything from public assistance to livestock in the road. The report from the Sheriff’s Office also touted 420 calls regarding traffic accidents, 221 calls regarding general thefts (includes everything from ATV’s to garbage cans), 132 calls regarding burglaries, 111 calls about vandalism and 18 calls about stolen vehicles.

Rushing said 2014 crime-wise has been “par on par” with the amount from the year before.

Out of 1,183 total calls to the Brookhaven Police Department, the type with the highest frequency was burglary with 203 calls. For a combined total of 163 calls, shoplifting (felony, misdemeanor and misdemeanor second offense) follows burglary. There were 54 calls regarding possession of controlled substances (marijuana, paraphernalia, with intent and other). There were 28 calls regarding driving under the influence with 26 being first offense DUIs and one each for second and third offense. There were 43 calls of grand larceny and 41 calls of petty larceny. BPD also reports there were 78 warrants issued in 2014.

BPD Chief Bobby Bell said many of the incidents of the recent year are not the norm for Brookhaven and attributes some of the offenses to people getting less time than usual for their crimes saying, “that’s going to affect society.”

Bell said store robberies for the 2014 years were dramatically down due to the department’s heavier presence in the streets.

“Presence is key to policing,” Bell said and explained that being in constant contact with clerks and business owners is sometimes the only control his department can exercise regarding certain crimes in the city.

Both officials agree that it is difficult to predict what crime will be like in the upcoming year but are looking forward to deeper connections with their respective communities.