Wednesday, July 14, 1999
Juvenile, other Newport crime mostly down
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT — Juvenile crime in Campbell County's largest city dropped appreciably from 1997 to 1998, while overall violent crime varied widely, depending on the offense, according to the 1998 police department report.
Among notable increases was murder. Newport had three murders in 1998 compared with none in 1997, and two juveniles went to prison after pleading guilty to one of those murders.
The police department re leased its annual report for 1998 this week, and in many crime categories the numbers were lower than the preceding year — basically in line with national violent-crime statistics.
Juvenile-crime figures also were generally lower, but because one of the murders — that of Charles Johnson on Monmouth Street — resulted in the arrest of and guilty pleas from two juveniles, the juvenile arrest figures went from none in 1997 to two in 1998.
The most notable change in juvenile arrests was a drop cur few violations, accompanied by less vandalism.
“We put a lot of emphasis on curfews,” Newport Police Chief Tom Fromme said Tuesday.“Juveniles out late at night are crimes waiting to happen in many instances.”
Newport recorded 743 acts of vandalism in 1997, with 2.5 percent cleared by arrests. In the same year, there were 446 juvenile arrests for curfew violation and loitering.
By comparison, the city had 660 vandalism offenses in 1998 (2 percent cleared) and 300 curfew/loitering juvenile arrests. Vandalism dropped by 11 percent and curfew/loitering juvenile arrests dropped by just more than 32 percent. Arrests of juveniles for vandalism offenses decreased by 47 percent, from 19 in 1997 to 10 in 1998.
Assaults in 1998, with and without weapons, showed a reduction of 13.5 percent compared with 1997 figures. Similarly, breaking and entering was down 33 percent. Larceny was nearly the same each year, while motor vehicle theft showed a 12.5 percent drop.
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