Greenville crime rate rises due to 2014 thefts

Published 5:17 pm Friday, February 20, 2015

The Harrison Funeral Home case brought the crime rate for the City of Greenville up in 2014, GPD Chief Lonzo Ingram said.

Because of the 41 cases that came out of the Harrison case, there were 112 felony theft cases last year.

“That’s the reason the thefts were up,” Ingram said. “With each person coming in, that was a separate case. That’s why we had a spike like that.”

Email newsletter signup

Earlier this month, former Harrison Funeral Home director Douglas “Dusty” Harrison was sentenced to 12 months in jail for theft of property. He was arrested in June 2014 and accused of using money intended for customers’ future funeral needs to run his business, according to Advocate archives.

The thefts are a part of the Part 1 Crimes group. Ingram said the Federal Bureau of Investigation uses this categorical definition of crimes to determine the crime rate.

“We had a lot of thefts, but those are the felony thefts,” he said.

Out of the 112 cases in 2014, the GPD closed 87. The close rate is 78 percent.

Greenville had 36 burglary cases, 19 of which were closed. The city had 13 assault cases and closed 97 percent of the cases.

Other notable Part 1 Crimes for the Camellia City include three murder cases that were all solved; one each of arson and rape; four vehicle thefts; and three robberies.

There were 173 total Part 1 Crimes in 2014. One-hundred-and-twenty-six of those were closed. For the year, the GPD solved 73 percent of its cases.

Part 2 Crimes for Greenville, which include a lot of drug and other crimes, indicate that the city had 112 total with 80 cases closing.

The highest Part 2 Crime was breaking and entering a motor vehicle with 39 and 16 being solved.

The total Part 2 Crimes was 285 with 206 getting solved.

Greenville had 163 Part 1 Crimes and 273 Part 2 Crimes in 2013. The GPD closed 312 cases for the year.

Ingram said the investigators are good about getting on cases in a fast manner.

“Of course I’m always concerned about the solvability factor,” he said. “Investigators do an outstanding job of solving these cases.”