Devin Golden

dgolden@gulfcoastnewspapers.com

Foley, Ala. - The Foley Police Department hopes for another decrease in the number of index crimes for 2010, but the final numbers will not come until later this month or in April, Foley Police Chief David Wilson said.

The city has decreased every year since 2007 in index crimes, which are the more serious crimes like burglaries and robberies, Wilson said. The index crime numbers for 2010 have yet to be released, but Wilson hopes and thinks the numbers will drop again.

"This is the exceptional job of the men and woman on our staff to lower crime," Wilson said. "It's also the result of the city government and the teamwork we have with them and the citizens in the neighborhood watch programs."

In 2006, the Foley PD reported 1,189 index crimes while Daphne had 596, Fairhope had 468 and Gulf Shores had 496 to round out the Baldwin County cities with at least a 10,000 population. In 2007, when Wilson joined the Foley PD staff, the number dropped to 1,164 and then dropped to 783 in 2008. In 2009, the city had 638 while Daphne had 501, Fairhope had 539 and Gulf Shores had 592.

"We are in range with the other three cities now," Wilson said.

Only Foley had a continuing decrease over the three year span.

The year of 2010 was also the first year in some time that the city reported zero homicides, Wilson said.

"I know that on crime overall we had another drop," Foley Police Chief David Wilson said.