A drop in homicides and felony assaults accounted for most of
the small drop in Hollister’s crime rate for 2002 despite a total
of 1,335 arrests.
A drop in homicides and felony assaults accounted for most of the small drop in Hollister’s crime rate for 2002 despite a total of 1,335 arrests.
The number of homicides in Hollister decreased from a long-time high of six murders in 2001 to one in 2002, representing a decline of approximately 83 percent, according to statistics released by the police department this week.
Police said the decrease in homicides put the rate back into perspective.
“Of course we would rather have the number of homicides at zero, but the six we had in 2001 was definitely out of the ordinary for us,” HPD Capt. Richard Vasquez said.
Previous crime reports corroborated Vasquez’s statement as the City of Hollister averaged just slightly less than one murder a year during the past six years, according to local police statistics.
Aggravated assaults was also down, decreasing by 8.7 percent. There were 160 reported felony assaults in 2001 to 146 in 2002. The arrests, however, did not take into account the 116 arrests for misdemeanor assaults and batteries, which accounted for the more typically seen personal confrontations and fistfights.
The drop was especially significant in the city because aggravated assaults can range from domestic disturbances to road rage gone awry.
Vasquez said those types of assaults are also indicative of larger social problems.
“Alcohol is often a contributing factor to those cases,” Vasquez said. “It’s not always the case, but I think most people would be surprised how often alcohol is involved.”
He said what often happens is someone who is already stressed or angry about some other aspect in their life starts drinking and then with their inhibitions reduced, they start to act on that stress or anger by taking it out on others.
The number of reported rapes also dropped by approximately 45 percent, going from 11 reported incidents in 2001 to six in 2002, according to statistics.
Hollister police made a total of 391 felony arrests in 2002, but that number increased to 430 when the 39 warrant and probation/ parole arrests were factored in.
However, by far, the police department was kept most busy by a wide variety of misdemeanor arrests, which totaled 745, and an additional 151 arrests for traffic-related offenses.
The 1,335 arrests in 2002 were just part of the more than 5,500 calls for service that the police department answered in 2002.
“Not every call for service ends up in an arrest,” Vasquez said. “Often, officers on the scene are able to work out some sort of resolution to a call that does not require taking anyone into custody.”
