'When will it stop?': Residents, police hope to see crime decrease in hot spot areas
May 23—It's all hands on deck to continue reducing violent crime in St. Joseph, as residents are taking notice of frequent illegal activities occurring in their neighborhoods.
The City of St. Joseph may have seen a decrease in overall crime during 2023, but some residents in areas like Midtown found the decline hard to notice.
"Oh, it's always something going on out here," Greg Thompson said. "Just two days ago there were three ambulances driving fast down this street and four cop cars were trailing right behind them and I knew it wasn't anything good."
Thompson recalls the many times he has witnessed and heard shots fired while living in Midtown. He works near the 1700 block of Messanie and said it has become the norm for him.
"I'm not really scared about anything that happens out here anymore because I know I can protect myself," he said. "But for other people, I would say that it is a concern for their safety because they have kids, wives and husbands to get back to. It's way too many families being put at risk."
Shots being fired is a common occurrence in Midtown, but that's just one of the many problems happening in the area.
The city saw a rise in two areas of crime last year: Aggravated assault rose to 295 compared to 182 in 2022, and burglaries rose to 389 compared to 374 in 2022.
According to the community crime map, within the last six months, there have been over six burglaries within the 2000 to 5000 blocks of Faraon Street. Messanie Street and surrounding neighborhoods saw the most aggravated assault cases with over 10 reports during the 2023 year.
Other residents who work and live nearby say they want to see something done about the crime.
"I've had so many of my businesses broken into," said Guillermo Pena, a St. Joseph resident. "The police department is even overwhelmed, and my only question is, 'When will it stop?' We need programs, we need solutions, something to stop this continuing crime that seems like it's only getting worse over here."
"The crime happening is way too much for the size of the town, just way too much," he continued.
Capt. Jeff Wilson with the police department said he's aware of the growing crime happening in Midtown, but it's not exclusive to that area.
"Violent crime is certainly happening in those neighborhoods, but our officers go on several calls a day and it's something that is sporadic throughout different areas of the city," he said.
Law enforcement officers say the rising violent crime that some may be witnessing in Midtown is the result of growing illegal activity in the town.
"What you will see is if you have areas that are more subject to other types of illegal behavior, i.e. drug dealing, stealing cars, different types of things like that, because of those individuals and factions that are related to that type of underlying criminal behavior, you end up seeing more violent crime in those areas," Wilson said.
Some residents say the drug crisis is contributing to the rise in local crime and it needs to be managed, but police assure they are keeping a keen eye on all illegal activity that's taking place.
"There's a level of investigation that needs to be done to prove these things," Wilson said. "We have to follow certain requirements of the law to be able to obtain the right to investigate these things further, but our officers are constantly facilitating these areas with more uniformed patrol presence and things along those lines. If we can be visual in the neighborhoods, maybe we can knock down crime a little bit just by doing that."
The police department is working with other law enforcement agencies in an effort to make sure they see numbers continue to decrease in all areas of crime.
"We want the message to be known that if you want to commit violent crime here, that's a terrible choice and we will be coming after you," Wilson said.
Jenna Wilson can be reached at jenna.wilson@newspressnow.com.
