Slidell Police Chief had good news Tuesday when he handed out the 2008 crime statistics to the City Council — crime in the city has gone down by 15.8 percent.

“I’m very proud of this achievement,” Drennan said. “The numbers went down in every category.”

According to the chief’s figures, there were 1,925 reported crimes for 2008 as compared to 2,287 reported in 2007. The decrease comes after a slight increase in crime since 2005. Crime reports went up 6.1 percent from 2005 to 2006 and 4 percent from 2006 to 2007. Drennan said he was especially impressed that despite some upticks in crime, the rates have come down 21 percent since 1999 when there were 2,442 reported crimes.

“The figures have gone down in 10 years. That is phenomenal,” Drennan said.

For the second year in a row there were no homicides within Slidell city limits. The last time murders were recorded was in 2006 when there were three homicides.

The biggest drop came in auto thefts with a big 50 percent drop in 2008 from 155 reported auto thefts in 2007 to 77 in 2008.

According to police spokesman, Capt. Kevin O’Neil, most of the auto thefts occurred within the last two months of 2008.

Rapes were down by 15 percent, robberies came down 4.5 percent, assaults decreased by 13 percent, burglaries and thefts also came down 18 and 12.6 percent respectively.

The only crime that went up was robbery by gun, which went from 6 reported armed robberies in 2007 to 13 in 2008, an increase of 116 percent.

Drennan said he attributes two things to the decrease in crimes. First he commends his officers for working hard, but more importantly, he thanked the council for finding the money to increase police pay which kept officers here in Slidell, and not seeking employment with other law enforcement agencies that offered higher salaries.

“Before that, we were losing officers,” Drennan said. “We needed more certified officers, and that is what we got,” He also credited the 11 reserve police officers for helping out in reducing crime. Reserve officers get the same training and certification as other police officers, but they patrol the streets for no pay.

“They put in 5,000 hours of work over the year,” Drennan said.