Representatives from the Louisiana State Police, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, Fire Services District 1 and the Slidell Police Department told East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce members Friday morning that crime is down, and residents should feel safe.

Capt. Danny Culpepper of the Sheriff’s Office said violent crimes parishwide are down. He said residential burglaries went up when residents evacuated during Hurricane Gustav, but most of the burglaries have been solved.

Two crimes that have seen a spike in activity are identification theft and car burglaries. Culpepper believes the increase in the latter is because people don’t lock their cars. “I urge everybody to lock their vehicles,” Culpepper said.

He also invited everyone to the grand opening sometime in late December of the new sheriff’s headquarters on Brownswitch Road. The new building will not function as a jail, Culpepper said, but will house the office for the sheriff, the District 2 patrol officers who watch over east St. Tammany and the Records and Criminal Investigations divisions. The captain said prisoners will still be incarcerated at the parish jail in Covington.

Slidell Police Chief Freddie Drennan also had good news for residents.

“Overall, crime in Slidell is down,” Drennan said.

He said there has been an increase in child abuse and child sexual abuse crimes, which he said is probably due not to an actual increase in the number of incidents, but an increase in people reporting such crimes.

He said he is especially proud of the fact that with three months remaining, Slidell has not had any homicides for 2008.

“Being so close to New Orleans, the murder capital of the country, speaks volumes for the department,” Drennan said.

Trooper Louis Calato, spokesman for Louisiana State Police Troop L, complimented the other agencies for helping make the recent evacuation using contraflow a big success.

“We evacuated over 2 million people, and we could not have done it without the aid of the police and Sheriff’s Office,” Calato said.

As for traffic incidents, Calato said the use of seat belts has gone up, and that has saved a lot of lives. Two years ago, 84 percent of residents were using seatbelts, now it is up to 94 percent, he said.

“That is a major change in behavior,” Calato said.

He added that Troop L has the most DWI arrests in the state, which has also changed motorists’ attitudes.

He said parish residents can expect more changes because Troop L’s new commander, Col. Mike Evanson, is focusing on keeping children safe.

Troopers will now ride on school buses and will stop and ticket drivers who do not stop when a bus is picking up or unloading students.

“We are seeing blatant violations of this, and we want to stop it,” Calato said.

Troop L troopers have also stepped up education on installing and maintaining car seats for toddlers and offer courses to parents and other law enforcement personnel on how to properly install the seats.

Even St. Tammany Parish Fire Protection District 1 had good news for the area. Chief of Administration Chris Kaufman said the number of structure fires has decreased by 20 percent this year. In fact, the number of all calls to the fire department has gone down. Kaufman said dispatchers usually get an average of 8,000 calls in a year, and so far, only 4,700 calls have been answered by fire dispatchers I 2008. Calls to help in car accidents have also decreased by 50 percent, Kaufman said. However, the number of medical calls has increased.

District 1 has also got more firefighters this year because of a $1 million federal grant that allowed them to hire nine firefighters, boosting the District 1 force to 150 firefighters.