Robberies hit 20-plus year low in city; overall crime down 3% in 2019

Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis said he never thought the city would again have fewer than the 34 robberies it had in 2018, but the 2019 crime statistics were a pleasant surprise for him.

In 2019, Hoover had just 27 robberies, representing a 21% decrease from 2018 and the lowest number of robberies in the city for at least 20 years, according to Hoover and FBI statistics.

“It’s amazing to me to see the reductions in what I consider major crime areas,” Derzis said.

Burglaries were down 48% from 239 in 2018 to 124 in 2019, while sex offenses were down 33% from 30 to 20 and thefts were down 6% from 1,854 to 1,735. Overall crime was down 3%, and arrests were up 3%.

The burglary and robbery declines were particularly notable for a city with an estimated population of 85,000.

National rates for 2019 were not yet available, but the 2018 national rate of robberies for cities with a population between 50,000 and 99,999 was 80.7 robberies per 100,000 residents. Hoover’s rate for 2019 was 31.8 per 100,000 people — 39% of the national rate for 2018.

The national rate for burglaries in cities similar in size to Hoover’s was 359 per 100,000 people, while Hoover’s burglary rate was 146 per 100,000 people — 41% of the national rate.

Of the 27 actual robberies that took place in 2019, 20 were traditional robberies of a person, while four were shoplifting cases that turned into robberies after the shoplifter struggled with someone, Lt. Keith Czeskleba said. Only three were robberies of a business, which Derzis said is an incredibly low number for a city the size of Hoover.

Hoover made arrests in 60% of its robbery cases and 35 to 40% of its burglary cases, both of which are above the national average, Derzis said.

Thefts of motor vehicles in Hoover increased slightly (4%) from 95 in 2019 to 99 in 2019 but remained about half the national rate for cities the size of Hoover. Apartment complexes are probably the leading location where vehicle thefts occur, Czeskleba said.

PROACTIVE POLICING, DOORBELL CAMERAS HELP

Derzis credited the proactive policing by Hoover officers, new technology and social media with helping reduce crime in the city.

“Our police officers are engaged and are out here doing what they’re paid to do, and that’s to patrol and be proactive and try to deter as many crimes as possible,” the chief said.

The increasing prevalence of doorbell cameras is also likely having a deterring effect, Derzis said.

Ring Inc., the company that produces the Ring video doorbell, reported more than 4,000 homes in Hoover have their product, he said.

“When bad guys are out here and are going to commit a crime, I just think that type of technology nowadays makes them move on to another location,” Derzis said.

The Hoover Police Department is encouraging people who have the Ring video doorbells to sign up for the Ring Neighborhood Portal, which allows residents to easily share doorbell video footage with police and/or everyone in their neighborhood when they have something they believe police or others need to see.

Also, the portal will allow police to email people with Ring doorbells when there is a crime in their neighborhood and ask them to send any relevant video footage they may have.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for the citizens to be able to communicate and give us information,” Derzis said.

Homeowners can decide what they want to share and what they don’t, Czeskleba said. Police will not be able to access the doorbell video footage unless the homeowners share it.

“It takes a step out of the process,” Czeskleba said. “Instead of us trying to go out and physically track the cameras down, it allows us to get it quickly from citizens … This is probably the future of better crime prevention and solving crimes when they happen. This is the wave of the future.”

Derzis said he also continues to be amazed how social media is helping police solve crimes and catch criminals every week.

“It’s amazing how quickly police get phone calls after soliciting information online, either directly from individuals or people who call anonymously to Crimestoppers,” he said.

THEFTS, WEAPONS VIOLATIONS

While thefts declined 6% in 2019, Hoover’s rate of thefts is higher than the national rate for cities of similar size, which is 1,728 thefts for every 100,000 people. Hoover’s rate is 2,041 per 100,000 people.

Derzis and Czeskleba said Hoover’s rate probably is higher because of all the retail shopping that takes place in the city. 800 of Hoover’s 1,735 thefts were shoplifting cases.

The second most common theft in Hoover is theft from a motor vehicle. There were 363 of those cases in 2019, down from 413 in 2018.

“It’s amazing to me how many people leave their vehicles unlocked, even when they have a handgun in it,” Derzis said. “We lose handguns every week because of people leaving their cars unlocked.”

Almost all of the police officers killed in Alabama last year were killed with a stolen handgun, the chief added.

Weapons violations in Hoover increased 63% in 2019, from 49 to 80, but the 2019 number is still slightly less than the 81 weapons violations in 2017.

Czeskleba said of the 80 weapons violations in 2019, 81% of them were misdemeanors. 58 people were caught with a firearm in their vehicle without a permit, while nine felons were caught with guns and six people were caught carrying a weapon without a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Derzis said that when people do commit felony weapons violations, Hoover police will try them in federal court rather than in state court. That’s because the current U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Jay Town, has been excellent at following through with prosecution of such cases.

“We can be assured of taking somebody off the street, and they will do some time, compared to some of our state charges,” he said. “That person hopefully will spend at least 10 years in federal prison.”

Police Capt. Gregg Rector said Town’s office is prosecuting felony weapons violations as aggressively as Hoover police have ever seen.

When they take bad guys with guns off the streets, that keeps those people from committing other crimes as well and probably is a contributing factor to the recent declining crime rates, Rector said.

“It’s not just Hoover seeing significant decreases in crime stats the last couple of years,” Rector said.

Derzis said the FBI, U.S. Marshal’s Office and U.S Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have all been good partners with Hoover police.

“We’re working every day to work together for the common ground of — let’s get bad guys off the streets,” he said.

HOMICIDES, DRUGS

Hoover had four homicides in 2019, and one of those was ruled a justified killing by the Jefferson County district attorney’s office, leaving only three, the same number as in 2018.

Police made arrests in each of those cases. Hoover police say they have solved 100% of their 28 homicide cases in the past 10 years. The last unsolved murder was in 2004, when 43-year-old Rob Puckett II was shot to death in his home on Shades Crest Road, Rector said.

Rector doesn’t count the 2016 slaying of Mike Gilotti in front of his Lake Cyrus home as an unsolved homicide, even though no one was convicted of murder in Gilotti’s death. Four people were charged with murder, but two were acquitted, and charges were dismissed against the other two after the first two prosecutions failed.

Drug crimes in Hoover fell 3% in 2019, from 755 to 732. Meth and marijuana arrests are still common, and the opioid epidemic is not subsiding, Rector said. Heroin and Fentanyl are both still prevalent, as they are in any metropolitan area across the country, he said.

“I don’t know that we’re going to see any decrease in it anytime soon because of the simple abundance of it and the affordability of it,” Rector said.

In years past, Derzis said Hoover police rarely saw meth. It was homegrown in rural areas, but now 99% of it is coming out of Mexico, and it’s very cheap.

There were 41 drug overdoses reported to Hoover police in 2019, 12 of those resulting in deaths, police said.

The chief said another reason crime is dropping is that the current mayor and City Council have been very good the past couple of years of making sure police got the personnel and equipment they need.

“I think they understand we have got to have the manpower and tools to do the job,” Derzis said. “We’ve been very, very satisfied with our budget requests the last several years.”