Local & State Headlines

Weather causes decrease in crime

• Crime citywide has dipped with the rainy weather, according to the volume of incidents reported Thursday and Friday.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — As the outer feeder bands of Tropical Storm Fay drifted into the Good Life City Friday afternoon, rain and gusty winds were the order of the day.

Just before the afternoon rush, police, fire and electric crews were forced to shut down all five lanes of Slappey Boulevard after a live powerline fell, fire officials say.

Jim Vaught, Dougherty County’s deputy emergency management director, said that wind was preliminarily believed to be the culprit.

“They’re saying on the ground that it was likely wind that caused the line to collapse,” Vaught said. “They’ve shut down the 800 block of Slappey and are rerouting traffic.”

Friday afternoon’s snafu came just a few hours after the National Weather Service had told Vaught and EMA Director James Carswell that the amount of wind the county could expect from the storm was in the “none” category.

“We’ve been told to expect some minor inland flooding, practically no wind activity and a slight chance of tornadic activity,” Vaught said just after the call.

As Friday crept along, heavier douses of rain swept through the region, causing some storm drains and gutters to spew out torrents of water.

Around 5:30, as city police were trying to deal with the traffic situation on Slappey, the Dougherty County Police responded to a report of a tree downed along Old Pretoria Road. No injuries in either case were reported.

EMA officials are asking the public to stay at home today and curb any unnecessary traveling.

Inevitably, however, traffic crashes spike during periods of poor weather, and officials are preparing for a higher-than-usual call volume at the area’s 911 center by bringing in additional dispatchers, Vaught said.

At police headquarters downtown, police officials have noticed an unexpected side effect of the inclement weather: a reduction in criminal incidents.

In a log book which averages 30-40 criminal incident reports on any given day, only four incidents were reported Thursday and another three Friday morning.