On Aug. 20, CNN’s Money Magazine rated Carmel as the number-one small city to live in America. Two months later, sophomore Steven “Stevie” Hall came home to “probably 20 cop cars” and “at least seven or eight police dogs” searching for the man who shot his sister, senior Shannon Hall, after attempting to rob their home.

The HiLite contacted Shannon and her parents, but they declined to comment for this article.

According to the Carmel Police Department news release, Shannon returned home unexpectedly and surprised the burglar, who then shot her in the leg and fled.

The Carmel Police Department news release described the perpetrator as 5 feet, 8 inches tall, wearing a gray sweatshirt, jeans and a black mask. As of press deadline, the police have not captured him yet.

“You don’t ever hear about shootings in Carmel on the news,” Stevie said. “I used to think something bad I’d hear on the news would never happen in Carmel.”

The shooting involving Shannon near Clay Center Road was not an isolated incident — crime statistics show that violent and property crimes are on the rise in Carmel.
Carmel Not Immune to Crime

Cityrating.com, which utilizes data from the FBI Report of Offenses Known to Law Enforcement, reported that crime rates in Carmel had an overall increase in the past few years, especially regarding violent crime and property crime. Also, following the recent trend, it predicted an increase in crime rates for 2012.

Despite those projections, according to school resource officer Phil Hobson, statistics can be deceiving.

“There’s so many factors that make statistics look different. In Carmel, if we went one year with no homicides in the whole year, then the next year we had a homicide, you could say, statistically, homicides increased by 100 percent,” Hobson said. “Statistics can make it look a lot worse.”

Hobson added, “I think the fact of how big of a story this is, is a reflection on how safe our community is because, ‘Oh my god, something happened in Carmel.’ If you go down to Indianapolis, there’s shootings everyday and they might make the third page of the metro section.”

Indeed, according to Citydata.org’s projected crime statistics for 2012, robberies, burglaries, larcenies and car thefts have been on the rise since 2010. Still, Carmel remains a staggering 81.36 percent below the state average for violent crimes and 58.85 percent below for property crimes.

“It’s always been the types of crimes we deal with are usually property crimes such as theft, vandalism, and we’ll have some financial crimes we also deal with (like) credit card frauds, check deceptions, those types of things,” Hobson said. “Most of the crimes against persons we investigate are people that are familiar with each other (and) they get in a fight, whether it be a domestic fight or two friends that get in a fight. We don’t have very much violence by unknown strangers who attack people in our community.”

Stevie said he disagreed with Hobson and his assessment, citing the attempted robbery and another incident in which someone stole a navigational device from his older sister’s car on Black Friday in 2010. The theft was one of 748 incidents of larceny and theft committed that year in Carmel.

Taking Precautions

Before the attempted robbery, Stevie said, his family took several safety precautions.

“We always made sure to lock all (our) doors and keep all (our) windows shut,” Stevie said.

Because of the incident, Stevie said his family is now upgrading their home security system.

However, according to Hobson, despite the relative safety of Carmel, people should still take the proper precautions.

“My boss teaches self-defense for ladies, and though a big piece of (it) is to physically defend yourself, (he also teaches) situational awareness, which means not trying to put yourself in a dangerous situation,” Hobson said. “Just being aware of situations, making personal safety a priority (and) not having a false sense of security (are important).”

Hobson also emphasized locking doors, not being alone at night and “(not leaving) your garage door standing open so someone can just walk in and commit a burglary or a theft or something more violent.”

Additionally, Hobson said many victims change their safety habits after an incident.

“I think a lot of people in those situations obviously become a lot more alert of their surroundings and may be extra cautious in terms of making sure doors are locked and looking for any signs of someone trying to force entry into their house,” Hobson said. “Like if you came home and saw, obviously, a window broken or glass on the ground, or sometimes they’ll pry a door frame open or a door is open — knowing that you (would) think someone might be in the house.”

Hobson said ‘liking’ the Carmel Police Department’s Facebook page will allow users to receive safety tips and other news from the Carmel Police.

“That’s one venue of using social media to get information out to our citizens,” Hobson said.

Good to Be Prepared

Both Stevie and Hobson agree that although crime may not be as prevalent in Carmel as other places, safety precautions are still necessary.

“If you live in a safe community, whether it’s a town of 50 people in a rural area in Indiana or it’s a big, more suburban area like Carmel, I think that it can be dangerous to assume that just because it’s a safe area that you don’t have to take safety precautions,” Hobson said. “I think that you can get a false sense of security when you live in a safe area and I think that’s something you have to overcome and still be safe.”

Stevie said, “I disagree with how safe (people think) Carmel is. Things like this can really happen anywhere.”

Hobson said another reason Carmel is considered a safe community is because of its lack of crime despite the large size of the city.

“Realistically, we live in a pretty big community that’s safe. This is not a really small rural community. I think our last numbers were 80,000, I think, (in) population,” Hobson said.

“You see the publications that rank our school, and our school has a lot to do with that, too, with how positive our community is viewed,” Hobson added.

“I still feel Carmel is more safe than other cities,” Stevie said. “I feel this was a reality check for most people in Carmel.”