shoreupdate.com

Kent County saw significant decline in crime in 2009. Sheriff John Price reported 408 crimes for 2009, down from 624 the year before and 435 in 2007. There were 116 serious crimes and 292 less serious crimes. In 2008 the numbers were 177 and 447, respectively. The report excludes crime handled by state police, Rock Hall and Chestertown officers.

Crimes reported most frequently tend to be the same every year: burglary, theft, drugs, minor assaults and property damage. The largest declines were in thefts and burglaries with 108 reported versus 163 in 2008. First degree assaults went from eight in 2008 to four in 2009. There was a large decrease in controlled dangerous substance violations, down by 46 to 93. There were 29 fewer instances of malicious destruction of property, while 2nd-degree assault dropped from 67 to 51 reported cases and DWI arrests fell from 88 to 74. Price’s office handled no homicides. There was one each reported for rape, kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted armed robbery.

Traffic patrols wrote 7,101 warnings and 2,204 citations. Warnings were up 18 percent, citations were down 8 percent, and traffic arrests for other than drunk driving were about the same as the year before. Crashes remained about the same, at 53 versus 48. Personal injury resulted from 11 of them, and no fatalities were reported for the second year in a row.