| Montpelier
Police Department 2005 Annual Report
Substance Abuse Issues Remain - Retiring Officers Lead To Replacement Plan - Overall Activity Increases A review of the year 2005 revealed that there was a minimal increase in reported crime to the Montpelier Police Department. As can be noted in the chart below there was a significant drop in the number of reported rapes. The other notable action was the drop in reported burglaries. Despite the drop in those areas, the increase seen in larceny accounted for an overall increase compared to the year 2004. From a statistical point of view, the overall change during the past three years has been stable. The amount of crime is down compared to the busy years from 2000 to 2002. It is generally believed that the sudden arrival of heroin in our area in 2000 contributed to this spike in reported crime. Arrests for drug offenses share a similar pattern. This report will continue to use the Uniform Crime Reports as a measure to relate to the community what is occurring. The Montpelier Police Department, along with all the police agencies in the United States, has been reporting crime using NIBRS (National Incident Based Reporting System). We send our information to VCIC and they send it on to the FBI. VCIC has developed an excellent web based report that is available to the community to access. The information is about six months delayed but still can be useful. Our review of the information indicates that it is generally accurate. We have noted that the arrest information appears to be incorrect. We are working on correcting this. By way of explanation the records management system (computerized) creates all the links based on what is considered an “A” or “B” offense. The only arrest data collected in NIBRS is for “B” offenses. Looking at the NIBRS offenses there was a 7.7% increase in “A” offenses compared to 2004. That increase should be primarily attributed to reported vandalism offenses. The “B” offenses showed a minimal decline of 1.9%. By way of explanation the “A” offenses are generally the more serious offenses typically found in Part I UCR list of crimes. They also include other type of crimes that have a large affect on society such as frauds, embezzlement, intimidation, sexual offenses other than rape to point out a few. Crime Statistics
During 2005, Officers of the Department arrested 235 persons for 302 offenses. This compares to 227 persons arrested for 295 offenses during the year 2004. Other measures of officers activity can be found in the number of accidents responded to. During 2005, there were 503 reports of accidents. For reporting purposes, we noted 222 accidents involving 428 vehicles with 18 injuries, five of which were pedestrians, and no fatalities. The numbers were slightly less than 2004. Similar measures can be found in foot patrol, mountain bike patrol, and motor vehicle enforcement activity. During the past two years, the number of hours available for this activity has decreased. In addition, the amount of time for motor vehicle work has also decreased. For example, there were 459 fewer motor vehicle stops in 2005 compared to 2004. Montpelier is not unlike the majority of communities and law enforcement agencies in Vermont with regard to staffing. There have been numerous stories in the media concerning the difficulty of recruiting and retaining qualified men and women for law enforcement. This is not a problem that is unique to Vermont but is a national problem as well. To compound the problem somewhat, there are two opportunities per year to place a recruit into the police academy. Once that recruit is in the academy, January and September, there will be a total of 24 or more weeks before that officer can be expected to function independently. Should an officer leave employment in February, then it would be January of the following year before a replacement is ready. With the assignment of one officer to the schools as the School Resource Officer, and the reduction of one officer in a previous budget cycle, there is funding for 15 uniformed officers, including the chief and sergeants. In a previous budget cycle, the funding for a regular officer with an eye to place an investigator on duty was lost. Officers now have to complete their own investigations. With one less officer, follow up and investigative time will replace time previously spent in preventative activity. Our last recruit is scheduled to enter the Police Academy in January 2006. More recently, an officer graduated from the Academy in November 2005. He is currently undergoing orientation following the basic training. The department will still be down at least one officer until the summer of 2006. Additionally there will more than likely be two retirements in the year 2006 and our plan is to place a recruit in the academy to have an officer ready to fill the position. Even with the best of luck, we still could experience a temporary reduction of two officers for a few months during 2006. Our goal during the next year is to meet our mission statement. The achievements of the past year have been many despite the reduction in staff and the response from community members has been heartening as we work together to deal with the complicated issues of the day. The second year involvement with the Capital Community Justice Center is a continuing opportunity for the department to look to alternative methods to deal with crime and other social issues that will eventually improve the quality of life in the community. We look forward to the challenges that 2006 will bring us. Mission Statement
Contact Us
Page updated August 17, 2007 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Please send comments to: webmaster@montpelier-vt.org Copyright © 1998-2008 City of Montpelier, Vermont. Hosted by http://www.networksolutions.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
