Homicides dominated the crime reports for Vicksburg and Warren County in 2011.

Including two that were later ruled accidental, the city and county investigated nine shooting deaths last year. Five were investigated by the Vicksburg Police Department and four by the Warren County Sheriff’s Office.

The county’s four matched the number the department investigated five years ago. In 2010, none was reported, one each in 2009 and 2008 and none in 2007.

All four 2011 homicides in the county involved family members or people living together.

“Probably the most difficult homicide to prevent is the domestic,” said Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace. “Many times no one, including law enforcement, is aware that there is a problem until it’s too late.”

VPD ended 2011 with three deaths that were ruled homicide, an increase from 2010, the same number reported in 2006. The deadliest year in Vicksburg in recent years remains 2007, which saw seven homicides, an accidental shooting death and two DUI-related vehicular homicides. Seven homicides were also recorded in the city in 2008, five of them in one week in June.

Arrests were reported in all 2011 city and county homicide cases.

Domestic violence reports, both misdemeanor and felony, have risen in both county and city, statistics show. Vicksburg police say the figures might reflect better reporting rather than a true increase in incidents.

“Our domestic violence unit has received special training for taking and working these cases,” said Deputy Chief Mitchell Dent. “We’ve always known there were a lot of things happening but for various reasons they weren’t being reported. There are more opportunities (now) for people to get relief and their cases to move through the court system.”

Most other crime categories saw declines from 2010 to 2011.

Burglaries investigated in Vicksburg went from 560 in 2010 to 505 in 2011, while auto thefts declined from 64 to 57 over the period.

In Warren County, burglaries were cut in half, 261 to 129. The decline was in part offset, however, by an increase in larcenies, from 190 in 2010 to 261 in 2011.

Pace said the shift resulted largely from a change in how the FBI instructed law enforcement agencies to account for the two crimes. Certain thefts that used to be considered auto burglary now are reported as larcenies, he said.

The county also saw declines in robberies, from five in 2010 to one in 2011; aggravated assault, 12 to six; and auto theft, 44 to 18.

Compared to 2006, crimes against people — homicide, rape, assault and robbery — have decreased slightly in the county, while property crimes have risen, 361 to 408.

Property crimes reported in Vicksburg have seen a steady decrease over the last three years, from 1,875 in 2009 to 1,743 in 2011, but the 2011 figure is nearly 20 percent higher than the 1,466 reported in 2006, an upward trend also seen in other categories:

• Rapes, which include sexual battery and statutory rape, nearly doubled, from 14 in 2006 to 25 in 2011.

• Aggravated assaults rose from 53 in 2006 to 96 in 2011.

• Burglaries rose from 466 in 2006 to 505 in 2011.

“There are areas where there are spikes, but overall we are seeing an decline in vehicle thefts and robberies,” said Dent. Burglaries also tend to fluctuate with the economy and the time of the year, he said.

Robberies in the city declined from 49 in 2006 to 21 last year, and auto thefts from 75 to 57.

County drug arrests have declined sharply since 2006, from a total of 142 to 81. Within that total, marijuana and cocaine arrests saw sharp drops while “other” drugs, which include methamphetamine and illegally-obtained pharmaceuticals, remained nearly constant.

“There is still a problem with marijuana, cocaine and crystal meth,” said Pace, “but by far the trend now is the pharmaceuticals.” Pace said the numbers probably reflect a slight decline in meth arrests due to the 2010 law that restricts the purchase of a key ingredient in its manufacture, balanced by an increase in arrests related to abuse of hydrocodone and other prescription narcotics.

Arrests of juveniles have fluctuated over the last five years.

Warren County reported 106 juvenile arrests in both 2009 and 2010, and 122 in 2011. All three are significantly lower, however, than the 164 the county recorded in 2006.

In the city, juvenile arrests have increased by about 22 percent, from 398 in 2006 to 484 in 2011, but last year’s number was a 27 percent drop from a high of 666 in 2009.

“We increased our juvenile division from one person to three,” said police Chief Walter Armstrong. Officers get out into the community in the morning, sometimes finding youths who should be in school but aren’t, and head off crime before it can happen, he said.

In addition, Armstrong credited the police department’s summer youth ball program with keeping juvenile crime down in months when school is out, and said watchful citizens also do their part.

“The bottom line is community involvement,” said Armstrong. “We want people to feel free to report crime, to get involved. We are now a member of Crime Stoppers, and that’s already paid off,” a reference to an October rape and burglary in the city in which an arrest was made following a tip to Central Mississippi Crime Stoppers.

Armstrong and Dent said police have held a number of “town meetings” in areas around the city to promote neighborhood watches and reassure residents that it’s OK to call 911 when they see suspicious activity.

“The people are our eyes and ears,” Dent said. “The more they call the more efficient we are in going out and dealing with these incidents.”

2011 homicides

Warren County

• Timothy Wayne Harmon, 25, 3400 U.S. 80, Lot 4, shot Jan. 6; charged with murder was Jeremy Blake Bowlin, 19, of the same address, the son of Harmon’s live-in girlfriend. Bowlin is scheduled for trial Feb. 21.

• Alicia Michelle Vega, 32, 100 Jones Road, shot May 2; charged with murder was her stepdaughter, Tyla Vega, 14. Her trial date also is Feb. 21.

• Gerald Wayne “Jerry” Allen, 36, 1626 Broadhill Drive, shot May 26 at 1254 Dillon Ridge Road; charged with murder was his father, 64-year-old Winifred Allen, 2255 Freetown Road, Lot 1. Winifred Allen is scheduled for trial Feb. 27.

• Angela Andrews, 40, 10150 U.S. 61 South, died Dec. 5 of head injuries from a beating; charged with murder was Andrews’ live-in boyfriend, Lorenzo Hull, 41. Hull’s case will be presented to a grand jury in 2012.

Vicksburg

• Robert Banks, 20, 226 High Hill Drive, shot May 31; James Ransom, 19, 1717 Martha St., was indicted for depraved heart murder and is scheduled for trial April 2.

• Michael Terrence Smith, 45, 2910 Arcadia Place, stabbed to death June 13. Charged with manslaughter was his live-in girlfriend, Annette Scott. Her trial is scheduled for March 26.

• William J. Jones Jr., 20, 280 Curry St., shot July 15; Rondell Galvin, 20, 209 Overlook Drive, was charged with capital murder, and James Walker, 37, 33 Johnson Drive, as an accessory after the fact.