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stouffville suntribune thursday oct 27 2005 13 robberies yduth crime up during first half of 2005 by martin derbyshire staff writer the number of murders sexual assaults and stolen cars in york region were down during the first halfof2005 but robberies drinking and driv ing and youth crime are on the rise york regional police released statistics from the first six months of 2005 during a police services board meeting wednesday showing demand for service dropped from 128189 calls in the first six months of 2005 to 120859 this year i think what were continuing to see is that crime overall is on the decrease york regional police chief armand la barge said but that doesnt necessarily mean there arent things we are concerned about topping the list of concerns is the recent rise in robberies the jump from 185 during the first six months of 2004 to 199 this year represents the highest number reported since 1999 this includes an increase in home invasions from eight in the first six months of 2004 to 17 in the first half of 2005 though home invasions represent just 85 per cent of all robberies retail robberies represent 322 per cent car jacking 45 per cent and muggings 508 per cent the remaining 4 per cent include finan cial atm and deposit robberies youth crime was also up 187 per cent during the first six months of 2005 charges laid against young persons increased 155 per cent and the number of youths dealt with by other means increased 206 per cent but chief la barge doesnt believe youth crime is on the rise as much as his police services ability to detect it in york region 99 per cent of our youth are not involved in any criminal activity at all he said its just a small number of youths caus ing the problems the number of impaired driving charges was up as well from 459 in the first half of 2005 to 470 in the same period this year proving the dont drink and drive message is still failing to reach some population increases actually drove the drinking and driving rate down across york but chief la barge is still not satisfied even one impaired driving charge is one too many he said adding police will continue to work with the community to send the message drinking and driving comes with serious consequences despite increases in certain crimes chief la barge maintains york is a safe community and many of the six- month statistics back that up there was a record number of homicides in 2004 including nine in the first half of the year but only four were recorded from january to june 2005 the number of sexual assaults was down from 221 to 213 and 960 vehicles were stolen down from 1111 during the first half of last year the community may also be more interested in helping solve crime crime stoppers of york region received 653 between january and june 2005 compared to 566 during in the same period last year open til 10 pm special friday for main street midnight madness we need to make room for new models futons from 179 mattress sets from 129piece beds 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