Sean C. Morgan
While Sweet Home Police Department set a record in 2015 for number of calls, key crime statistics decreased across the board, as police officers stepped up drug enforcement.
Sweet Home police received 10,161 calls for service.
The Police Department completed its annual report and released it last week.
Search Warrants
The department served 18 drug- and property crime-related search warrants during the past year, said Lynn, who became chief in 2013. “That’s more than we’ve done that I can recall.”
The department executed seven search warrants in 2014.
“We had some restructuring of the detectives unit,” Lynn said. Historically, the department has had two detectives, but the department has been unable to fill the second position for several years following budget reductions. The department refocused the remaining detective’s efforts to include drug cases as well as the child abuse, which had been her primary focus.
The patrol officers are picking up more of their own investigations, Lynn said. “It’s a challenge for the officers really to tackle all of their caseloads.”
Patrol officers refer some cases to the detective, but they’re investigating a lot more of their own cases now.
“There’s no down time,” Lynn said. “There’s no free time. I think you’ll see that in traffic enforcement. It has taken away from some of their self-initiated activity during the daytime hours.”
That includes traffic patrols and field interviews, where officers stop and talk to people they see on the streets.
“It has been an exceptional year for the detective in narcotics enforcement,” Lynn said. “There’s times (the detective has) made an impact in the community, based on those enforcement efforts.”
In 2015, the department has seized more than $45,000 in cash and an SUV through the forfeiture program, Lynn said, and that has gone straight back into narcotics enforcement.
Call Trends
By month, calls were highest in July and August, with more than 1,000 each month.
Call loads at the beginning of the year ran higher than last year, especially beginning in March, when the department had 852 calls, up from 660 in March 2014, a 192-call increase. That trend continued to a lesser extent until September, when the rate of calls started dropping.
In September 2015, police received 816 calls, compared to 855 in September 2014. Through the end of the year, they responded to fewer calls each month than in 2014.
“The summer months were busy,” Lynn said. “It drops off in winter months.
“It’s hard to make a prediction where they’re going to go this year.”
Saturday tended to be the busiest day of the week in 2015, with an average of 278 calls per Saturday. That statistic was compiled based on a select list of complaints, including mental, theft, burglary, criminal mischief, motor vehicle crashes and disturbances.
Key Crime Statistics
The number of burglaries decreased from 87 to 78 from 2014 to 2015, the lowest in Sweet Home in at least five years.
The number of thefts decreased from 570 to 507, and the number of criminal mischief complaints decreased from 155 to 115, the lowest number in at least five years.
The number of thefts would have been much lower but for a growing amount of unauthorized entry into motor vehicles, which are also counted as part of the thefts statistic, Lynn said, while theft reports decreased substantially at the first, second and third degrees.
“You can count on one hand the ones that were actually ‘broken’ into,” Lynn said. Most vehicles entered in 2015 were unlocked.
In a related statistic, the number of motor vehicle thefts increased to 43 from 32. From 2011 to 2013, the department averaged just 20 motor vehicle thefts.
The number of aggravated assaults decreased from 17 to eight.
Among the most dramatic increases in 2015 were warrant arrests, arrests for outstanding warrants, most typically for failure to comply with a judgment or failure to appear at court. This continues a trend from 2014. From 2013 to 2014, the number of warrant arrests increased from 511 to 802. From 2014 to 2015, that number increased to 957. In 2011, the department made arrests on just 395.
Lynn said he isn’t sure what the cause is, but he plans to look into it further.
The number of calls for suspicious activity also continued an upward trend in 2015.
From 2012 to 2013, the number of calls for suspicious activity increased from 1,069 to 1,129. In 2014, SHPD fielded 1,218 of the calls, and in 2015, it received 1,414 calls.
“Quite honestly, we encourage that,” Lynn said. “That’s something we’ve preached for a couple of years. If something doesn’t look right, call us so we can check on it.”
Weeds, grass and brush complaints led code enforcement reports, with 117, in 2015. SHPD received 103 calls about open storage of a number of items, which is prohibited by city ordinance.
The department responded to its call load this year with 15 certified police officers, including the new school resource officer, a police chief, two sergeants and a detective. Code enforcement is handled by a non-certified employee. The department has had as many as 17 certified police officers.
“We’re encouraged by the results this year,” Lynn said. “But we’re far from where we want to be. We’ll continue to look for ways to improve through our response. We’ll keep finding ways to be more efficient, more effective.”
The annual report is available at the city’s website, sweet-home.or.us.