Missoula Crime Report: Young Men are Driving Dangerously Fast
Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 11 new felony complaints this week, which is one less than last week and lower than the weekly average. According to County Attorney Matt Jennings, that’s one of the lowest amounts they have had this year.
“Six of those were violent crimes,” Jennings said. “Within our violent category, we had two crimes of family violence. We had two robbery cases and two sexual assault cases. Usually, our sex assault cases aren't charged in custody, which means someone didn't get arrested as something was happening. Those usually take a lot of investigation.”
They also had three property crimes and two drug crimes this week. Jennings also mentioned that they got a message from Justice Court this week. He said they have noticed a similar pattern that his office has already been monitoring.
“We have a whole lot of young men in our community driving really fast and I'm not talking just speeding downtown or something,” Jennings said. “I'm talking 100 miles an hour or 110 miles an hour on Reserve Street or even in residential neighborhoods going 60-70 miles an hour. We're seeing kind of a weird uptick in those and our justices of the peace are going to be expecting jail time out of those if they're going to be putting other people in risk.”
Jennings explained how his office handles those types of offenses.
“We often end up charging those as felonies if somebody truly was hurt or we can identify a pedestrian or another car that almost got hit, or if there are drugs and alcohol involved,” Jennings said. “The step down from that is reckless driving. That's something we're going to take a look at because more people are killed by traffic accidents in Montana than by gun violence or other forms of violence. While we sometimes get desensitized to that because of the number of vehicles on the road, it is something that we take really seriously because we know we can keep people safe if we follow the rules.”
READ MORE: Missoula News - Crime Reports
Under Montana law, an offender will accumulate a certain number of points for the traffic violations they commit.
“When you get 30 points you can be labeled something that's called a habitual traffic offender,” Jennings said. “If you're caught driving when you're a habitual traffic offender, your license is suspended and you can't drive. That privilege is taken away from you. If you do get caught, that's 14 days in jail and it's a big fine. We prosecute those and we take them really seriously because you have to work hard to get 30 points.”
The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back. You can listen to Jennings’s full report below:
LOOK: Highest-paying jobs in Missoula
Gallery Credit: Stacker