The FBI recently released its 2011 Crime in the United States report, which breaks down and tracks crime by city and type of crime.

In Novi, incidents of violent crime, which includes murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault, increased from 36 to 43 incidents from 2010 to 2011. 

While incidents of property crime, which includes burglary, larceny and theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson, decreased from 1,000 to 964 incidents from 2010 to 2011.

Novi Chief of Police/Director of Public Safety David Molloy said despite the small increase in some of the crimes, he is confident that the department is heading in the right direction.

"We did see a slight bump in some of our crimes [in 2011], but I'm happy to report that so far this year we've seen significant reductions in what we deem to be the violent crimes," Molloy said.

Novi Crimes, Past Four Years

"As always, property crime continues to be one of our main drivers, and we're taking a look at the data and where the incidents are occurring and deploying our personnel accordingly," Molloy said.

He said the police operates on four main principles to execute its strategy:

1. Using accurate and timely intelligence, including up-to-date data.
2. Having effective tactics. Molloy said this means when they know where the crime is taking place, deploying the department's men and women accordingly.
3. Rapid deployment. This means not waiting a week to act. "If we see a certain trend in an area, we ship our resources to that are and take action, make arrests, traffic stops or look at other core elements of what might be causing the crime," Molloy said.
4. Relentless follow-up and assessment. So once the police identify who the criminals are, they go back and do very detailed interviews and detailed analysis of where the crimes took place.

Molloy said the department maintains a nearly 38 percent clearance rate, which is double the national average for a community of Novi's size.

"We're still solving a vast majority of our cases that are assigned to our investigators, and that's a credit to their expertise," he said.

Data courtesy of www.fbi.gov.