By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

Total crime in Kissimmee increased 28 percent in the first half of 2010, according to the police department’s mid-year crime statistics.

From January to July, crimes such as murder, forcible sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft increased 28 percent compared to the same period in 2009, according to Stacie Miller, Kissimmee Police Department spokeswoman.

Domestic violence and shoplifting contributed 58 percent of the 419 total crimes reported in the mid-year statistics report submitted by the KPD to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in August. The increase is leading law enforcement to consider the continued slow economy a contributing factor.

“Difficult social and economic factors often contribute to the increase in specific crimes like domestic violence and shoplifting,” Kissimmee Police Chief Fran Iwanski said.

“You’ve got a lot of people out of work with mortgages to pay and children to feed and it gets to some people,” Miller said. “The more stress people are under, the more apt they are to have short fuses.”

Additionally, calls into the KPD call center, including non-emergency and 9-1-1 calls, increased 12.7 percent, with 7,783 calls coming in between January and July. Since the adoption of the “See It ... Say It” campaign in 2006, calls have steadily increased to the call center each year.

“This collaboration effort will result in increasing numbers of criminal incidents being reported to law en-forcement. Continuing partnerships with the citizens ultimately strengthens our community in our overall effort to reduce crime in Kissimmee,” Iwanski said.

To further curb crime, KPD holds monthly internal meetings where officers go over the monthly crime statistics, including which crimes have increased and where. More focus is then put on those areas, including a heavier presence of undercover officers.

“Although the statistics reflect an increase, we remain confident that our crime control and community outreach strategies will prove effective, especially in the areas of department concentration, such as burglary to homes, where the department continues to see a positive result with a 13.7 percent decrease and vehicle burglaries which are up slightly by 6.5 percent,” Iwanski said.

Drug-related crimes are not included in the bi-annual report.