U.S. Jewelry Crime Report Notes Positive Trends

Aug 7, 2014 1:00 PM By Nirali Sheth

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RAPAPORT... The Jewelers' Security Alliance (JSA) found that the total number of crimes against the jewelry industry in the U.S. decreased 13.4 percent year on year for the first six months of 2014. According to the JSA Preliminary Crime Report, both the number of cases and the value lost due to crime fell to its lowest level in six years.

Since 2009, the average number of cases in the first six months had topped 700 and jewelers had lost at least $40 million due to crime. But the figures began to change in 2013, when the value of losses dipped to $35.3 million, and the trend continued in this first half with a total loss at $34 million, according to JSA. Meanwhile, arrests have surged 77 percent to 374 in the first half due, in large part, to the number of gangs being apprehended. Jewelry crime gangs can sometimes have as many as 11 members.

John Kennedy, the president of JSA, attributed these results to "terrific investigative work by the FBI and local law enforcement agencies." He added that information sharing has also helped apprehend criminals and drive crime rates lower. "The other main driver has been an upsurge in information sharing by local crime prevention networks of jewelers, and particularly a dramatic increase in the sharing of good suspect surveillance photos and videos. Recently, quite a number of suspects have been immediately recognized due to photos and descriptions in weekly JSA Email Crime Alerts. With leads provided by jewelers, law enforcement agencies are pursuing jewelry gangs with perseverance, sometimes involving one year or two or more of dogged investigative work," he said.

It is, perhaps, due to this perseverance that there was an uptick in the number of crime-related homicides in the first six months. JSA noted five people -- four suspects and one jeweler -- were killed in the first six months, whereas in the first half of 2013 two jewelers had been murdered.

Tags: crime stats, jewelers security alliance, Jewelry, Nirali Sheth