April a Violent Crime-Free Month for East Hanover

April was a quiet month for the East Hanover Police Department—a very quiet month, according to the New Jersey State Police, with no assaults, burglaries or thefts reported.

East Hanover is a relatively safe and quiet town, so even a small change can make a difference. For example, in April 2012, one simple assault was reported and 13 larceny thefts were reported.

Also consider the drop in crime from January to April 2012 compared to January to April 2013. According to the state police's crime report, the four-month Year To Date crime in 2012 was 62 incidents compared to 26 in the same time period in 2013.

For those of you who can't do the math in your head, that's a 58.1 percent decrease.

Simple assault is the only crime to see a rise in those two four-month periods year over year. In the first four months of 2012 there were three simple assaults reported. In the same four months in 2013, there were seven simple assauls reported, an increase of 133.3 percent.

Aggravated assaults, attempted forcible entries and car thefts all fell from at least one incident to none in the first four months of 2013, compared to the same four months in 2012.

Larcony thefts fell from 48 incidents to 16 incidents in the same time period, total assaults fell from 6 incidents to 1 and forcible entries fell from 3 incidents to 1. Truck and bus thefts rose from no incidents to one reported.

Overall, however, nonviolent crime in East Hanover is down 66 percent and violent crime is down 83.3 percent so far this year.

The unified crime report was updated on May 31 with information through April of this year.

Will the trends continue? We'll check in next month when the State Police update their Unified Crime Report once more.