GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Between the keep away signs on her front porch, security cameras, and a four-legged guard, Darlene Bruening hopes these measures will keep her safe.
“I used to not even lock my doors,” she said.
Because on June 19, 2020, she found a dead man in her backyard.
“The gunshots,” Bruening remembers. “Everybody running like crazy. And we had just brought our great grandson in.”
Her great-grandson, Theodore, too young to understand the day’s events, rode his tricycle within the crime tape that surrounded Bruening’s home the next day.
What had started as a daytime gathering in Seymour Park ended with a shootout leaving one person dead and two injured.
“Being a Green Bay resident, do you think you’ve read more local news headlines about violent crimes?” asked FOX 11.
“Absolutely,” Bruening answered immediately. “A lot more gun crimes, a lot more robberies.”
“A lot of the same folks that are involved in a lot of this activity (and) are actually a small group of people,” said Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis.
So was the case in the Seymour Park shooting.
It means what’s largely responsible for a jump in certain crimes in Green Bay, comes down to a handful of individuals.
Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis explains in part how the pandemic could impact crime in the area.
“It’s like the risk calculation changed,” Davis began. “If I calculate that the risk of being stopped by police and getting caught illegally carrying a firearm is higher than the risk of one of my adversaries catching me without a firearm and being unable to defend myself, then I’m not gonna carry a gun because the risk is higher if caught with it,” he explained. “And it’s almost as if, and this is my experience, as if that risk calculation has flipped.”
The theory seems to back up some crime stats FOX 11 pulled from Green Bay Police in a record request.
Murder Rates
- 1 in 2018
- 3 in 2019
- 6 in 2020
Sex Offenses
- 146 in 2018
- 134 in 2019
- 132 in 2020
Assault Offenses
- 1,394 in 2018
- 1,452 in 2019
- 1,252 in 2020
A downward trend continued for other crimes.
“Property crimes for example, residential burglaries, commercial burglaries,” said Davis on pandemic crime impact. “Probably it’s because in case of residential burglaries, people were home more.”
Burglary
- 257 in 2018
- 247 in 2019
- 209 in 2020
While Green Bay continues to study its public safety, Appleton Police reveals an unsurprising impact.
“One stat that we did see that was a little higher was suicide rates,” said Lt. Megan Cash.
Lt. Cash says in response, Appleton residents can expect to see more mental health awareness campaigns, adding there have been other crime increases but none that she would attribute to Covid-19.
“Something that we’ve seen a slight increase was in intimidations. So it’d be more of sometimes an enhancer or something added to a charge,” said Cash. “But again that’s not something we would associate specifically with the pandemic.”
“What does that look like in action?” FOX 11 asked.
“So, an intimidation could be trying to encourage somebody not to report a crime,” Cash explained. “Or once they have reported that crime or area victim of that crime, try to get them not to testify in court, or go through that legal process.”
“What do you say to people who assumed there would be some kind of increase in violence because of the pandemic’s impact on people?” asked FOX 11.
“I think that the impact on people is something definitely that we saw, but I think that pulling together as a community….
As for Bruening she says this is her forever home. She’s lived her for 37 years. It’s why she hopes when these crime stats are pulled next year they’re headed in the opposite direction.
