The Silver Spring Penguin

New crime stats show fewer rapes and assaults, but more robberies, burglaries and auto thefts in the third police district.

According to police statistics, the third district saw a 6.6 percent drop in overall crime during the first three months of 2007, compared with the same time last year.

There were three rapes and 51 aggravated assaults reported in this year’s first quarter, down from five rapes and 55 assaults in the first quarter of 2006. The murder rate remained steady at one per quarter in each year.

However, robberies and auto thefts jumped by at least 15 percent. Ninety-one robberies and 215 car thefts were reported in the first quarter of 2007, versus 78 robberies and 187 stolen cars a year ago.

Burglaries were also up, from 186 in the first quarter of 2006, to 202 this year.

While more robberies, burglaries and car thefts were reported this year over last, arrest rates for these crimes have dropped. In the first quarter of 2006, 27 percent of reported robberies resulted in an arrest. That number dropped to 22 percent in 2007.

Among reported burglaries, the arrest rate dropped from 31 percent in the first quarter of 2006, to 17 percent this year. Ditto for car thefts (19 percent in 2006, 6 percent in 2007) and assaults (65 percent in 2006, 33 percent in 2007).

The entire county experienced a 3.4-percent decrease in overall. Only one category — burglary — took a hit with a 2.5-percent countywide increase.