Anonymous said...
As far as your publishers note about officers telling people to contact their insurance for claims less than $1000, I believe that is why UCR crime numbers are down; if there is no suspect info and no evidence to process and it is a misdemeanor, the officers probably get away with a "blotter entry" where they call the list of items in to dispatch and the dispatcher enters it in the call blotter. No official report is taken and there is only a case number given for insurance purposes. This is done to reduce paperwork in departments where certain crimes lack any leads to be followed up on and the home owner is reporting it because their insurance co needs a case number. Problem with this is that since no report is taken, it is not reflected in UCR statistics and because officers don't like writing reports they are more likely to overlook potential evidence and suggest to the person that all they need is a case number for their insurance company, and behold, crime numbers go down.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
That us why you have to look at the daily calls for service for what crimes are happening and not rely on the UCR numbers.
ReplyDeleteI HAVE SAID THIS MANY TIMES BEFORE... Maryland simply has too many ORGANIZATOINS targeted towards citizen protection and crime prevention. A cop is a cop. A crime is a crime. A requirement for protection is a requirement for protection. When you reach the bottom of advising citizens to contact their insurance companies to address an individual crime incident, it's time to rethink. Chief Lewis clearly is capable of managing a workforce in Salisbury as well as the County given the funding. The funding is already in place for Salisbury. Just turn it over to another organization and get rid of the administrative overhead that Salisbury taxpayers alone fund.
ReplyDeleteYou can't ask these officers to take a report for EVERY crime! That is too much work! When will they have time to Facebook?
ReplyDeleteJoe, go through the daily calls for service and see how many crimes are called in, in a month, then go back and see what the monthly totals are. Look and see how many are listed as "insurance purposes only".
ReplyDelete90% of calls for service are not crime related. Most involve civil disputes, domestics, juvenile complaints, traffic accidents etc that are not crimes. An increase in calls for service is irrelavent to actual reported crime.
ReplyDeletethis came from SPD
ReplyDelete7:42 sounds like SPD Admin! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! If a call for service comes in as an MDOP, theft, burglary, assault and it is substantiated, then it should be cleared as "Under investigation" , not "cleared other", and since when are domestics and juvenile complaints not crimes?
ReplyDeleteSince always. Verbal arguements are not crimes. Kids riding their bikes on the street is not a crime. Kids ringing your doorbell is not a crime. Kids plaing hide and seek is not a crime etc, etc, etc. Parking complaints are not crimes. Broken down vehicles are not crimes. Complaining neighbors are not crimes. Noise complaints are not crimes. This is what police spend most of their time responding to. There are 8 crimes that fall under the UCR that make up a cities "crime rate"- Murder, rape, robbery, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny, Arson and assault. If its not one of the eight, it's not included in your crime rate. So telling a complainant to call their insurance because their vehicle was vandalized has nothing to do with a lower crime rate.
ReplyDeleteMany of what you named are crimes. The list of crimes you gave are part I crimes. Part II crimes are crimes as well. If you think malicious destruction of property is not a crime you are sadly mistaken. Again, sounds like Spd admin with their smoke and mirrors.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure every cop would be glad to do a report for every incident. It will take them off the street and reduce the number of complaints they would normaly have to respond to, by doing paper work. This would force whiny citizen to pay more taxes to hire more cops. More cops is what cops want, because there isnt enough to respond to the BS compalints or be proactive and handle the "real" crimes. "Sir, did you ask your neighbor to turn down the music? NO, I called you."
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry for your inability to read. Yes MDOP is a crime. It is not counted toward the UCR which are the only crimes considered in a cities crime rate. Any Questions?
ReplyDelete6:35 AM
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was gonna say but you beat me to it. It's a crime to talk such nonsense and claim it's true.
Maybe you need to read between the lines. It's all double speak. When they say crime is down are they only talking about the serious crimes or ALL crimes?? Don't tell me crime is down just because certain crimes are down, what is the whole picture? You must be one of those whiny cops who likes to sit inside, away from danger, hoping for more officers in the next budget so you can do less work. Where is the manpower going if crime is down? You're taking fewer reports because of the insurance purpose only clearance and yet you want more money, more manpower, more more more. What more are the tax payers getting for this?
ReplyDeleteWe can't believe anything that government says. The statistics do prove that.
ReplyDeleteJoe , did you know that the dollar general in pittsville got robbed this weekend ! Haven't seen or heard anything about it !! Deliver driver gets robbed ! Home invasion ! Where is the law on this side of the county!!
ReplyDelete