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Dayton safer in 2011 stats say

Serious violent crime down 16 percent over previous year

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By Doug Page, Staff Writer Updated 10:31 AM Thursday, February 2, 2012

DAYTON — City residents were safer in their homes and on the street in 2011 than they were the year before, in part, because of improved policing and community involvement, Police Chief Richard Biehl said.

Serious violent crime in 2011 was down 16 percent compared to 2010, and major property crimes dropped by 6 percent, Biehl said in unveiling the year-end crime report at a Wednesday news conference. The drop mirrors a nationwide trend in crime.

“This is a remarkable reduction,” Biehl said.

Biehl cited two factors leading to the decrease: improved law enforcement based on data analysis and the citizens’ cooperation.

“I don’t want to neglect the role of our citizens who have stepped up to witnesses in court ... and problem-solvers in their neighborhoods.” he said.

“We can’t do this without the help of our citizens, especially as our resources are declining,”  Biehl said.

The department started 2010 with around 385 sworn officers. It ended the year with slightly more than 330 because of normal retirement, medical leaves and the state-mandated retirements of many longtime officers enrolled in a program that kept them on duty for up to eight additional years past their eligible retirement date.

Lt. Randy Beane, president of the local FOP, said the data was “great news,” but he had some reservations before he was ready “to beat the drum.”

“It’s been shown that the number of some crimes go down when the number of police officers goes down,” Beane said.

“Without the officers out there taking proactive action to prevent crime, many crimes go unreported,” Beane said.

The declines in crime were seen in all areas of the city with the majority of the decline coming in West Dayton, according to the data.

Serious violent crime includes murder, rape, armed robberies and aggravated assault. Major property crimes include arsons, burglaries, thefts, larcenies and auto thefts.

The department has invested a lot of time and money into crime analysis, and Biehl said it is starting to pay off.

“We are using crime analysis to do a better job of spotting emerging trends so we can better focus our response,” he said.

City Manager Tim Riordan pointed to the recent police reorganization, moving property crime detectives out of the downtown Safety Building and into the patrol operation districts throughout the city. Riordan told of visiting the East Patrol Operations District/South detectives recently and seeing the mug shots of jailed area burglars and their release dates posted on a wall. Riordan discovered that the street officers and detectives were exchanging mug shots and information through their smart phones.

Residential burglaries dropped 8 percent from 2010 to 2011. Biehl said that reversed a two-year trend of increases. In 2008, the department reported 2,467 such burglaries. That rose to 2,525 in 2009 and peaked at 2,724 in 2010 before dropping to 2,949 last year.

FOP’s Beane said reorganization played no part in the declines. Scattering the property detectives throughout the city means there is less communication between detectives and would prove to be a detriment, he said.

Maj. Pat Welsh, commander of the West Patrol Operations District, said cooperation and education of the community has cut the number of burglaries in neighborhoods such as Riverdale and Westwood.

“In Riverdale, we had a number of churches hit by thieves taking air conditioners and other metal thefts. We made up brochures late last year to help the churches take precautions and hand-delivered them. The officers then went back out to recontact the churches to answer any questions. In the past 30 days, we have not had a single church hit,” Welsh said.

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