Downtown Augusta area ranks third-highest in violent crime reports | The Augusta Chronicle

As downtown property owners are asked to pay extra for heightened security, they might question why the resources aren’t there already.

The Augusta Chronicle analyzed Richmond County Sheriff’s Office incident reports of violent crimes during a two-year period ending in May, when a South Carolina couple was brutally beaten and robbed during a late-night visit to Riverwalk Augusta.

Within the central business district – an emergency response area bounded by Fourth and 15th streets and by Walton Way and the Savannah River – incidents of violent crime ranked third-highest among the sheriff’s 48 response areas, behind Richmond Hill and the public housing complexes, the data showed.

Even so, city officials said the frequency shouldn’t scare away visitors.

“Every 10 days you have a violent crime,” said city Administrator Fred Russell, a former deputy police chief in Richmond, Va. In Richmond, similar in size to Augusta, crime was much worse, he said.

Augusta’s central business district had 80 violent crimes during the two-year period, fewer than one a week.

Most of those crimes, 56, involved robberies, such as the May 3 armed robbery of the South Carolina couple that was brutally beaten. The downtown area tied Richmond Hill for the highest number of robberies in any single emergency response area.

via Downtown Augusta area ranks third-highest in violent crime reports | The Augusta Chronicle.