where is Orland Hills?

S, it's between Orland Park and Tinley Park. Formerly known as Westhaven. According to Wikipedia, it's all of 1.1 square miles. When we first moved to Tinley 25 years ago, everyone used to ask "where in the h*ll is Westhaven"? The OH village web site says they changed the name in April 1986.

I converted these data to occurrences per thousand people and was disappointed to see Homewood ranked third-highest for violent crime (1.8/1000) and second highest for property crime (40.9/1000) among the 19 communities reported here. (Flossmoor ranked 11/19 (0.8) and 8/19 (19.3). That should make Juvenal happy, if anything makes Juvenal happy, which I rather doubt.)

Patch, how do these data compare to previous years? What is the response of the HPD to them?

The South Suburbs in general have serious problems. The Southwest burbs do too. We are all swirling down the same bowl. It is a shame. Anyone who says there isn't a problem isn't being realistic.

The property crime seems very high in Homewood, I mean Homewood is a village of 18,000 yet it has only 379 property crimes fewer then Oak Lawn a City of 52k. Clearly something needs to be done about the Homewood's crime.

Where are Country Club Hills, Glenwood, Harvey and Chicago Heights? Why wouldn't they be reported as well? Concidering these are the bordering towns of Homewood, I'd like to see their stats as well. How many crimes in Homewood (and Flossmoor) were committed by residents of these neighboring communities? Maybe it's more, maybe it's less, but it would be interesting to read since Homewood is sandwiched between all of them.

Homewood is fine. People just need to keep their eyes and ears open. Get to know your neighbors (believe it or not, this can help) and don't be afraid to call the police. That's what they're there for.

Thanks Kate! It makes it much easier to wrap my head around when you do it per thousand.

I love an uber geek. Thanks, Kate. Your breakdowns are indeed helpful.

I'm just happy that the stats for New Lenox are not god awful. I can survive with those. Phew!

Here's a question that should be asked,how many of these crimes were committed by displaced sec.8's that were formerly from Chicago's Robert Taylor homes or Cabrini Green areas that now the south suburbs have to deal with!!

Well, let's see... If your job as police chief was on the line because crime was up, would there be any temptation to "amend" the way your department reports data to the UCR?

Unfortunately our Halsted corridor has many crimes from individuals from surrounding communities.

I would be curious if larceny category above includes common shoplifting from retail outlets such as k Mart. If so the concern shoul be in the burglary status where a good neighborhood watch is necessary. Community vigilance The police can't be everywhere and we can't expect them to be the fail safe.

How come there are never any FBI or other crime statistics for Hickory Hills??

Paul K

An interesting stat would also be to know how much of the crime is from residents of their own community and how much is imported? We can see from this data where the crimes are being committed, but are those people perpetrating the crimes sticking close to home? Kate, get on that, please.

Interesting - Orland Park has the Highest Property Crime counts out of all 19 communities. And compared to our neighoring towns, Orland has the seconded highest Violent Crime count. Plus this doesn't even include the figures from 2011 which would add at least 3 more murders and at least 3 more armed robberies where victims where attacked in Orland.

Wonder if this finally be the eye-opening report to get more funding to help get crime under control in before luring more people to live and work in our community?

Do you have the stats on Lansing? I had a heck of a time reading that report. Thanks in advance!

Are the communities that aren't listed because they wouldn't release their figures??

I'm just saying some of the crime figures in some towns, year over year, are about as consistent as Bernie Madoff's investment returns....

How have crime rates changed from the prior year? http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_08_il.html

FYI: We've received Chicago Heights crime numbers and will be posting them early tomorrow morning.

As reported by the Homewood Police Department, a majority of these crimes are stolen property from vehicles. And a majority of the stolen property is due to someone leaving their doors unlocked. I've seen scattered comments and had discussions with co-workers and I've surprisingly heard a lot of feedback saying "I NEVER lock my car." Or "Leaving my doors unlocked cars doesn't mean you can steal my stuff." Well no kidding. I never said it was right. But that's the problem. Every week we're hearing reports of 15 different people admitting to leaving their vehicles open when their expensive goods are stolen out of your glovebox. You are all targets. When you are not breaking & entering or using forced entry, the crime results in less punishment. You are a delight to thieves. Do these homeowners realize that their actions are affecting the rest of us? Do they realize the more they leave their cars unlocked, the bigger the bullseye, the more crimes occur and the rest of our homeowners insurance increases? As if the Cook County tax increase in addition to the referrendum that passed (in which I 100% support btw) wasn't enough, now I have to start paying for my neighbors' mistakes that were so easily avoidable. Homewood's numbers and rates are out of control. Just start locking your cars. Please & thank you!

Homewood Police Chief Larry Burnson issued this notification to residents today:

First, to remind everyone of the importance of locking their vehicles, even when parked in their own driveways. For the second time in the past two years, the Homewood Police Department's Detective Bureau arrested a homeless man, from Chicago Heights, for burglary to numerous vehicles. The vehicles were left unlocked either in the driveway or on the street in front of the resident's homes. A host of items were removed from the unlocked vehicles including iPads, cell phones and cash.

Secondly, the second part of this message is to put these crimes into perspective for recently released crime reports. Although Part 1(serious) crimes have decreased in the Village of Homewood for the sixth straight year, we report crimes in Homewood according to criteria established by the FBI. While some communities might report these car burglaries as thefts, we report them correctly as burglaries, and those are categorized the same as burglaries/thefts to properties - commercial or residential.

These crime reports affect homeowner's insurance premiums for the entire community. Therefore, I ask each and every resident to ensure that they lock their vehicles when they park them, no matter where the vehicle might be, and share this information with friends and neighbors.

Unless Homewood can prove that more persons are leaving their vehicles unlocked than in the past, their statement is nothing more than the old HPD "victim-blaming" game and ignores the fact that these crimes have gone UP in 60430 while going down nationally; which is a failure of the HPD, not its residents....

Before we all go pointing fingers at any particular "group" as the cause, a lot of folks need to look in the mirror. And this applies to every community. Does anyone besides myself wonder how many victims "pad" their theft reports? I don't know about the rest of you, but we don't know anyone who is dumb enough to leave cash, laptops, their entire wallet full of credit cards, and other expensive items in their cars. Even those with the least amount of common sense should know better.

I would like to see crime data for Lansing, Dolton, Calumet City. Why are these communities being left out of the reporting???

I would like to see crime data for Lansing, Calumet City, Dolton. Why are these communities being excluded from the crime reports??