MEMPHIS, TN – Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons announced Monday that prosecutors handled 29 percent more overall cases in 2009 than in 2008, based on information released in the office’s 2009 Annual Report. According to the report, the overall caseload for the District Attorney’s office increased from 102,074 cases in 2008 to 132,072 in 2009 – a 29 percent increase. This rise, though, was not in cases involving major felony charges, but rather in lower level charges handled primarily in the General Sessions Criminal Courts.
Other points to note from the 2009 Annual Report include:
- Cases involving firearms. Total cases involving firearms dropped 9 percent in 2009 compared to 2008 and, looking at the longer term trend, 6.8 percent since 2002. However, in a disturbing trend, domestic aggravated assaults with use of a firearm increased 6.1 percent in 2009 compared to 2008, with an overall increase of 26 percent since 2002.
- Domestic violence. This increase in domestic violence cases involving use of a firearm is part of an overall increase in domestic violence cases being handled by our Domestic Violence Prosecution Unit. In 2008, the unit handled 3,991 cases – 3,157 misdemeanor cases and 834 felony assault cases. In 2009, that figure jumped to a total of 5,315 cases – 4,459 misdemeanor cases and 856 felony assault cases, a 33 percent increase.
Beginning in November of 2009, the Domestic Violence Prosecution Unit began vertical prosecution of all cases it handles, meaning all domestic violence cases that start in the specially designated domestic violence court in General Sessions Criminal Court and all cases that end up in Criminal Court for a jury trial.
- Gang crime. One way of measuring gang crime is to look at the number of violent crimes being committed by groups of three or more individuals. The number of reported violent crimes known to involve three or more perpetrators dropped 10.8 percent compared to 2008. (Violent crimes are defined as murders, robberies, carjackings, rapes, and aggravated assaults.)
- Drugs. The number of drug offenses indicted by the state grand jury jumped from 4,367 in 2008 to 6,936 in 2009. This is largely due to major emphasis by the Memphis Police Department on undercover drug operations as part of Blue CRUSH.
In addition to criminally prosecuting those engaged in drug trafficking, the D.A.'s office continued to aggressively use civil actions to go after the physical locations of drug business in an effort to curtail and disrupt that business. This includes the aggressive use of nuisance actions to go after havens of drug activity and use of our Drug Dealer Eviction Program to go after drug trafficking in specific apartments and duplexes. In 2009, an annual record of 351 drug dealers were removed from rental properties under the Drug Dealer Eviction Program, for a total of 2,877 since the program began in 1997.
- Juvenile crime. The office's juvenile court caseload remained fairly steady in 2009. A point of encouragement is that the number of juveniles prosecuted for major violent crimes dropped from 426 in 2008 to 376 in 2009, and there was a drop in the number of juveniles transferred from juvenile court to be prosecuted as adults in criminal court as well (from 225 in 2008 to 194 in 2009). As with the reduction in reported violent crimes committed by three or more, this may be an indication of some reduction in gang activity.
- Crime trends. Reported crimes covered by the FBI’s Part 1 Uniform Crime Report were down in the city of Memphis were down in 2009 compared to 2008. These are the crime statistics normally used in comparing Memphis’ crime rate to crime rates in other cities. Specifically, the Part 1 Uniform Crime Report includes reported homicides, robberies, rapes, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies, and auto thefts. Homicides were down slightly (0.8 percent), and there were declines in robberies (down 13.4 percent), burglaries (down 14.0 percent), aggravated assaults (down 6.1 percent), and auto thefts (down 24.2 percent). The longer term trend (2006 – 2009) is even more encouraging, with all reported Part 1 Crimes down in the city of Memphis by 16.0 percent.
To view the entire District Attorney’s Office 2009 Annual Report, log onto www.scdag.com. |