Looking at Tulsa's armed robbery numbers for the year so far

This has been a bad week in Tulsa for armed robberies. The city normally sees 10 or 12 a week, but this week, there were 23. <br/><br/>To make matters worse, the robberies were more violent, involving

Thursday, June 17th 2004, 5:09 pm

By: News On 6

This has been a bad week in Tulsa for armed robberies. The city normally sees 10 or 12 a week, but this week, there were 23.

To make matters worse, the robberies were more violent, involving pistol-whippings and shootings. Still, there hasn't been a huge increase in robberies from years past.

News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright says it seems there's a new robbery on the news every day.

There's no question we've seen a spike in the past week. But a closer look at the past few years shows robberies are not skyrocketing out of control like it might seem. In the first six months of 2001, Tulsa had 385 robberies.

In the same time during 2002, there were 412. That number went up slightly in the first half of 2003 to 416. And, so far this year, 398, which is basically on pace.

A 5-year comparison for the entire year shows robberies were actually down in 2003.

Tulsa Police Sgt Troy Rogers: "The perception, as we've been talking is that they're happening on every block. But that's not the case. It's still safe to take your family out to a restaurant, movie, museum or park, your normal daily activities."

Obviously, detectives feel like any number of robberies is too many, but it's easy to blow these out of proportion because they are getting so much more media coverage. Part of the reason is because there are more surveillance tapes available to show the public, which helps solve the cases. And, part of it is the increase in violence, like the two clerks shot after they handed over the money.

Sergeant Rogers believes it's wrong to blame the recent robberies on the bad economy. "Honest people go out and try to get other jobs or they use the system and apply for unemployment benefits, they don't go out and rob."

He says the biggest factor they see for robberies is drugs and that's not likely to change anytime soon.

The News on 6 checked and learned Tulsa is still better off than some cities of comparable size. Compared to Tulsa's 398 robberies so far this year, Little Rock had 406 at the end of May and Oklahoma City had around 800.