MACON, Ga. — The coronavirus epidemic may be affecting crime in the area. The Bibb County Sheriff's Office saw an uptick in some types of crime in the last week.
Sheriff David Davis says he's assigned the Bibb County Crime Analysis Team to see how COVID-19 has affected crime in the county.
"We want to see what affect it has on all crimes across the board," Davis said.
Though the team is still collecting data, the sheriff's office has seen an upward trend of both commercial burglaries and domestic violence cases in the last week.
So why is this happening? Davis says an increase in domestic violence cases isn't surprising.
"Some uptick in domestic unrest…domestic strife is sort of to be expected when you have people gathered together for an extended period of time," Davis said. "Sometimes tensions can flare. It can be like that even in normal times. But think about the added uncertainties about the virus, the uncertainties about what's going to happen next."
As for commercial burglaries, the county saw a handful recently, like at the Family Dollar on Shurling Drive Sunday morning.
Davis says this is because criminals are taking advantage of commercial businesses being closed. He says deputies are keeping a closer eye on suspicious behavior, especially under the mayor's new order.
"Our deputies are going to consider it suspicious, and they're going to have to be stopped if they're around closed businesses and neighborhoods," Davis said.
With the an uptick in both of these crimes, Davis says it's too early to tell the overall impact COVID-19 has had and will have on crime.
"Really, you won't be able to see a significant impact until we get past it," Davis said. "Then, we start comparing weeks to weeks and months to months."
Davis says at the end of March, they'll compare this month's crime rates to March 2019.
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