CEDAR RAPIDS- Neighbors in one part of Cedar Rapids are starting to ask some questions about crime. The main question is whether is just our imagination, of is the crime problem here getting worse?
The area in question is located around Jacolyn Drive—both on the northwest and southwestern portions of that residential street. It’s an area that located in the Cedar Hills neighborhood of Cedar Rapids.
But proof that the problem is getting worse, even compared to a couple of years ago, isn’t so easy to find.
TV9 asked Cedar Rapids Police to analyze recent crimes in the area. But there wasn’t time for any definitive conclusion on Friday.
But longtime west side resident Don Byerly is convinced things are getting worse. Last Monday, he was walking to his apartment garages when he saw several people inside a garage with the door open.
They may have been doing something illegal because he heard one say “what did he see” and then he said they started coming after him.
“I started walking and they were coming at me, just on the other side of a building I ducked down,” Byerly said.
Byerly said he hid in the dark and after the group of teenagers passed he called police. Two weeks before, another group of teens walking on 16th Avenue S.W. had yelled threatening things at him while he was outside his apartment building. He called police then as well.
Byerly said “it’s scary, I’m way more aware of my surroundings now.”
Byerly wasn’t technically a crime victim since nothing happened. But he said a neighbor was recently robbed at gunpoint in the same area. Other neighbors point to incidents around Jacolyn Park as something that’s causing them concern.
One homeowner who lives by that park said it’s just not the same neighborhood he moved to in 2005.
Corey Parizo said “I bought it (my home) for Jacolyn Park so my daughter could use the park and have fun with her brother. Things have just turned where I don’t want her to be there by herself.”
Byerly said he may not have proof that crime is getting worse in the area. But he felt strongly enough about it to speak up and warn others in the area to watch out for themselves.
