Vernon Parish Sheriff’s Office releases crime stats from 2018 and 2019

VERNON PARISH, La. (KPLC) - A recent article by HomeSnacks ranked Leesville as the 10th most dangerous place to live in Louisiana, behind cities like Monroe, Hammond, and Crowley.

The article stated, “After a huge growth spurt in the 60′s and 70′s, people are actually leaving Leesville in droves, which could be in part to its high criminal population. As of the last FBI report, crime in Leesville has been ticking upwards, and statistically, one in 16 residents here was recently the victim of a robbery or car theft.”

Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft says they actually saw a decrease in those crimes.

“The best numbers that I saw were our burglaries and thefts were down for the parish," Craft said. "The ’19 numbers were down from the ’18 numbers.”

In 2019, VPSO received 66 calls in reference to a burglary, compared to the 81 calls in 2018. For theft, VPSO received 532 calls in 2019, down 37 from the previous year.

Sheriff Craft says when comparing their stats from 2018 and 2019 to the national stats put together by the FBI, the only stat that shows an increase in Vernon Parish from the national average is rape or sex crimes.

“I see our sex crimes increased. Now that’s just the report of something that was sex-related. It could have been unfounded, but that number did go up from ’18 to ’19 for sex crime calls," Craft said. "It does not necessarily mean there was a charge, it could have been deemed unfounded, but that number did go up.”

For the full list of crime statistics for Vernon Parish in 2018 and 2019, HERE.

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