Police officers answer more calls than ever
McMinnville police officers answered more calls than ever before, setting a record mark during the first quarter of 2005 when officers responded to an average of 36 calls per day.
A total of 3,275 calls were answered by city police during the first quarter (January through March) of 2005, a number up sharply from the first quarter of 2004 when 2,702 were answered. The number marks the most calls ever responded to by McMinnville police during a single quarter.
“The first quarter is usually one of the quietest times of year because it’s after the holidays and before summer vacations,” said McMinnville Police Captain Bryan Denton. “But, we’ve seen through the years these things come in cycles. There’s no one single area we can point to which caused this elevated number of police calls.”
Police were still able to respond quickly as the average response time dropped by 8 seconds to 4 minutes, 20 seconds. The busiest day for calls, as normal, was Saturday when police answered an average of 41 calls.
With the higher number of calls came a higher crime rate as 358 offenses were reported, opposed to 318 during the same quarter last year. Contributing to the higher crime rate was an increased number of theft reports with 106 reported as opposed to 87 last year. Accounting for part of the theft number was a near doubling in gas drive-offs as 15 gas thieves left the pumps without paying as fuel prices skyrocketed.
The increase in fuel thefts came even as shoplifting cases hit a new low with 14 reported as opposed to 38 during the first quarter of 2004. Police note the numbers only reflect cases in which the shoplifters are observed and/or caught. Burglary also went the way of shoplifting, dropping from 31 to 21 this recent quarter. Forgery and fraud dropped slightly from 10 to eight.
Violent crime also made a slight dip as the most common violent crime, assault, went from 71 last year to 56 this most recent quarter. More serious aggravated assaults also dropped by more than half from five to two.
Sex offenses, however, doubled from four to eight, while child abuse reports held steady at five. There was one armed robbery this past quarter. There were no murders.
In the area of arrests, city lawmen took 240 people to jail between January and March, 11 less than the same quarter of 2004. However, the number of juveniles being arrested increased for the first time in many quarters with 33 people under 18 arrested, as opposed to 22 last year.
Police broke with an increased trend of ticket-writing this past quarter, issuing 1,458 citations opposed to 1,612 the first quarter of last year. Citations had risen dramatically until the past quarter.
Police issued 589 speeding tickets, 264 tickets for having no insurance, 35 tickets for excessive noise, 114 tickets for those not having licenses, 18 for seat belt violations and 24 for those not properly restraining their children.
In the area of drugs, stepped-up canine enforcement combined with undercover operations led to a near doubling of drug arrests with 50 arrested this past quarter compared to 27 last year. There were also 20 people arrested for drunk driving and 12 for public intoxication.
Crime stats at a glance