The Tomball Police Department 2009 Annual Report shows a slight increase in “index crimes,” considered serious crimes, from the year before, but a near-30 percent drop in violent crimes from 2008.

In 2009, there were 488 Index Crimes, categorized as violent or property crimes and include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft. That numbers is an increase of 35 from the previous year, but still significantly less than the 520 that occurred in 2007.

The vast majority of Index Crimes reported in 2009 were larcenies, which occurred 360 times, while burglaries (70) were the second most. There were four reported rapes in Tomball in 2009, the fewest in five years; and for the second straight year, the city fortunately saw no murders.

The marginal increase in Index Crimes continues a curious trend in which such crimes spike in odd number years and drop in even numbered years.

Violent Crimes, defined as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, dropped by 26 percent in 2009, from 41 in 2008 to 30. Of those, the majority (19) were reported as aggravated assaults.

The report also broke down crimes per month, with July having the most reported cases of Index Crimes, 60, followed by October, February and December. The month with the fewest reported cases was March with 28.

The city also saw a slight decrease of 8.7 percent, or 408, in motor vehicle accidents in 2009. In fact, 2009 was the safest Tomball’s streets have been in the five years included in the report. In 2007, there were more than 600 motor vehicle accidents.

Of the 408 accidents in 2009, 50 resulted in an injury or fatality, while 87.7 percent were non-injury. Last year also saw a significant increase in written citations, with 12, 407 being issues, a jump of 14 percent from 2008.

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