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Fewer Warren crimes solved
By ED RUNYAN
WARREN
When the city laid off 20 police officers at the start of 2009 to balance the budget and trimmed its detective bureau to just a few officers, then-police Chief John Mandopoulos said fewer crimes would be investigated and solved.
That turned out to be true, an annual report says.
Tim Bowers, who became chief in September 2009 but served as acting chief for six months before that, said the department functioned with three full-time detectives in 2009, compared with nine in 2008.
One way the department coped with the reduction was by assigning fewer cases to the detective bureau.
In 2008, detectives worked on 580 cases, but in 2009, they investigated 394.
In 2008, detectives solved 41.5 percent of cases through arrest. In 2009, detectives solved 35.7 percent.
“Everybody down here’s working harder. I’m real proud of them,” Bowers said.
The department had 60 officers at the end of 2009, compared with 81 at the end of 2008.
Detectives had 50 percent more homicides to investigate in 2009 than in 2008 — nine in 2009 compared with six in 2008 — but in most categories, there were fewer crimes reported.
In all, the department received 35,680 calls for service in 2009, a drop of 7,547 from 2008, or 17.5 percent.
In six major categories — homicide, rape, burglary, assault, robbery and larceny, the department investigated 3,173 crimes in 2009, a 4.4 percent reduction compared with the 2008 total of 3,318.
Forcible rapes dropped 18 percent; robbery dropped 18 percent, despite an armed-robbery spree in July that put the city’s West Side on high alert; assaults dropped 5 percent, and burglaries dropped 14 percent. Other types of theft, known as larceny, increased 6 percent.
Bowers said there is relatively little that a police department can do to prevent homicides. Most killings are either drug-related or domestic, he said.
As for total crime, Bowers said the statistics tell him one thing: Officers are not initiating as many contacts with citizens as they did before the layoff.
“Officers are less likely to get involved when they know there are fewer officers available,” Bowers said.
Dispatchers also make different decisions when they know there are fewer officers, Bowers noted, such as providing information to the caller or advising them whom to call instead of sending a patrol car.
It’s also likely that citizens are not reporting as many incidents as before, in part because the city’s population continues to drop, Bowers said.
Though it’s not clear what the reason is, Bowers said, the number of 911 calls reported in 2009 was up 9 percent in 2009, and calls to the nonemergency police number doubled — from 133,131 to 260,734.
Bowers said perhaps one reason people called the nonemergency line so much is that it is the only place where government is open 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
All patrol officers and supervisors now work overlapping 10-hour shifts to try to address crime at the busiest times of the day, Bowers said.
In Warren, that is between 3 and 4 p.m., with a large number of calls for service continuing until about 10 p.m.
Statistics provided by Warren Municipal Court indicate that the number of felony charges filed dropped 13.8 percent in 2009, the number of misdemeanor charges dropped 29.7 percent, and total criminal cases handled dropped by 25.6 percent.
Statistics provided by the Warren Police Department and Warren Municipal Court in various categories:
WARREN POLICE
Investigations assigned to a detective: 580 in 2008; 394 in 2009.
Solved by detectives: 41.5 percent in 2008; 35.7 percent 2009.
Calls for service: 43,227 in 2008; 35,680 in 2009, down 17.5 percent.
Crime reports in six major categories: 3,318 in 2008; 3,173 in 2009, down 4.4 percent.
Homicides: 6 in 2008, 9 in 2009.
Forcible rape: 39 in 2008; 32 in 2009, down 18 percent
Burglary: 889 in 2008; 762 in 2009, down 14 percent
Assault: 1,054 in 2008; 1,003 in 2009, down 5 percent
Robbery: 167 in 2008; 137 in 2009, down 18 percent
Larceny (thefts): 1,163 in 2008; 1,230 in 2009, up 6 percent.
911 calls received: 48,975 in 2008; 53,464 in 2009, up 9 percent
Nonemergency calls: 133,131 in 2008; 260,734 in 2009, up 95.8 percent
Traffic citations: 5,336 in 2008; 3,036 in 2009, down 43 percent.
Traffic fatalities: 7 in 2008; 1 in 2009, down 85.7 percent.
Traffic crashes: 878 in 2008, 889 in 2009, up 1 percent.
Warren Municipal Court
Felony charges: 783 in 2008; 675 in 2009, down 13.8 percent.
Misdemeanor charges: 2,257 in 2008; 1,586 in 2009, down 29.7 percent.
Total criminal cases: 3,040 in 2008; 2,261 in 2009, down 25.6 percent.
Source: Annual reports