The city just had its lowest number of homicides in 30 years, but there are so many teenagers running around stealing cars that overall crime has gone up nearly 10 percent, according to statistics and police officials.
There were 11 homicides in 2009, compared with 20 in 2008 - a 45 percent drop, according to statistics released by the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Auto thefts went up 54.5 percent. There were 2,257 stolen car cases in 2009, compared with 1,461 the year before, according to the statistics.
"That's what's driving our numbers," police spokesman Bill Proffitt said. "We have a small group of hard-core auto thieves in this city."
Proffitt said auto theft numbers were driven by a small group of relentless teenagers who steal one car after another, sometimes after they have been sent to a residential program for their crimes.
Auto theft numbers from 2008 represented a 36 percent decrease compared with 2007, Proffitt said. Many teenage car thieves were sentenced in 2008 to residential programs out of the city but were released last year, and the numbers went back up again, Proffitt said.
Overall crime rose 9.4 percent, according to the statistics.
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