The number of commercial burglaries on Madison's Westside has dropped significantly, and West District Captain Jay Lengfeld says the arrest of three men appears to have made a major dent in what had become a concerning crime trend.

For example, in December of 2007 there were 61 commercial burglaries reported in the West District. This past December (2008) there were only five.

Here are the statistics:

Month/Year Number of Burglaries

Nov '07 43
Dec '07 61
Jan '08 34
Feb 35
March 24
April 24
May 16
June 30
July 20
August 16
September 15
October 5
November 5
December 5

West District detectives have indicated office suite burglaries, which were fueling many of the high number months, came to a stop when the last of three main burglary suspects was arrested last year.

As often is the case, a relatively small number of suspects can cause significant spikes in crime.