Violent crime increase reported in Eugene.

Byline: Andrea Damewood The Register-Guard

An increase in violent crime in Eugene was offset by a larger decrease in the amount of property crime last year, according to FBI statistics released this week.

Violent crime - including robbery and aggravated assault - rose by 12.8 percent.

But overall, the city's violent crime rate has been going down for the past 10 years, Eugene police crime analyst Stan Lenhart said.

"We had a rash of bank robberies, and for some reason aggravated assault took a jump up," he said. "We have these little bumps and spikes; it just happens to be that last year there was a bump up in violent crime."

The largest increase was in robberies - with 155 cases in 2006, up from 119 in 2005. Aggravated assault, which includes attempted murder, also increased by 10 percent.

The jump mirrors a similar national trend that began a few years ago, Lenhart said, adding that he was unsure that an increase in violent crime means that criminals are escalating their tactics.

"I'm not sure that there are any studies that say someone would graduate from a normal property crime up to a more violent crime like a robbery," he said. "Usually, violent crime is from people who are more desperate - robbery is really correlated and associated with heroin use."

Though the FBI statistics cite three murders in the city, that numbe actually is higher, Lenhart said.

Eugene detectives investigated eight killings in 2006, two of which were shootings involving police officers. Both police shootings were declared justified by the district attorney.

Lenhart said the FBI numbers, released Monday, are preliminary and may have come from incorrect data sent to the federal bureau from the city or state level. Eugene police will work with the bureau to correct the inaccuracy before the final statistics are released, he said.

The eight killings in 2006 are up from the five people murdered in 2005 in Eugene, according to the FBI.

Eugene, Salem and Portland are the only Oregon cities with large-enough populations for the to FBI track.

Property crime fell by 18.1 percent, led by a 30 percent drop in car theft.

"We set records for auto theft three years in a row, so this is really good to see," Lenhart said. "We were able to target some individuals that were a big part of that crime and get them some pretty significant jail time."

Officers also worked to educate citizens on how to keep their cars safe, he said. Car theft often happens in crowded areas such as malls, stores and apartment complexes, so police also cooperated with private security to prevent theft.

Larceny - crimes such as shoplifting, bicycle theft, purse-snatching and theft from cars - declined from 6,639 cases reported in 2005 to 5,386 in 2006.

Forcible rape cases also went down, with 44 reported incidents last year compared to 54 in 2005.