Most people will agree that Traverse City is a very safe place to live. But as population continues to rise, what do the numbers say?

A comparison of felony charges between 2009 and 2014 shows a seven percent increase – from 266 in 2009 to 284 in 2014, according to the Grand Traverse County Prosecutor’s office, which tracks the stats for the City of Traverse City. These charges include everything from possession of a burglar’s tools to murder.

A deeper look at three types of violent crime, however– murder, assault and criminal sexual conduct – as well as drug offenses, property crime and drunken driving shows an overall increase of nearly 14 percent.

Murder charges rose from zero in 2009 to three in 2014. Assaults, which include domestic violence, child abuse, assault on an officer and weapon use, rose from 44 charges in 2009 to 79 in 2014. Much of that increase is related to assaults on police officers: In 2009, there were 29 charges brought. In 2014, that number was 42.

Traverse City Police Chief Michael Warren sees a relationship between violent crimes and the rise of methamphetamine and heroin, both of which he says were “pretty much unheard of ten years ago.”

Indeed, drug-related felony charges nearly doubled from 26 in 2009 to 51 in 2014.

Warren recalls a Traverse Narcotics Team lieutenant telling him four years ago that the city was “gonna get hit like a freight train.”
“And he was right,” Warren says. “But that’s happening everywhere, not just here.”

Felony charges of criminal sexual conduct or rape – increased from five in 2009 to nine in 2014.

Not all felony criminal charges are on the rise, however. Traverse City has seen a significant drop in felony property citations – including larceny, home invasion, robbery, forgery, fraud, armed robbery, embezzlement and malicious destruction of property – from 64 felony charges in 2009 to 33 in 2014.

Felony drunken driving charges (operating while intoxicated or OWI III) dropped from 21 in 2009 to 7 in 2014.

Law enforcement officials cite stiffer laws that might be at least partly responsible for the decrease.

But another factor is also at work: A county-wide plea bargaining policy gives drunk drivers a chance to reduce their OWI III felony charges to a misdemeanor conviction. Defendants initially must plead guilty to the felony-level offense and then enter the Sobriety Court program for a full year while they attend weekly court meetings, go to Alcoholics Anonymous or similar support groups, seek mental health counseling when appropriate, submit to random testing and generally show they are “clean” from alcohol and drugs.

Those who stick with the program can have their offenses reduced to misdemeanor drunken driving. The court continues to monitor their status for two more years.

“The recidivism rate is just four percent, which is very good,” says Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Bob Cooney of the program. “The idea is if you can keep someone off alcohol or drugs for a couple of years, you’ve really accomplished something in terms of recovery in comparison to just throwing them in jail.”