2012 Middleton NH Police Crime Stats

Middleton N.H.  Police Crime Data:

As we enter the budget process, we have to examine crime trends around us to gauge what resources we need to do our job.  Our first and primary responsibility to the community is to keep the community safe through the Protection of Life and Property.

In Middleton, every call for service generates a police report.  This allows us to track what kind of calls we receive and allows us to track trends.  Our police software tracks these crimes in various categories.

The first category of crimes is Crimes against the Person.  Crimes against the Person include crimes such as homicide, forcible rapes, sodomy, forcible fondling, simple assaults, intimidation, incest and statutory rape.  This is a category where we can have little impact during patrols.  There are few preventative measures we can take to decrease these crimes.

During 2006 to 2007 these crimes increased 46%.

2007 to 2008 we saw a decrease of 32%.

2008 to 2009 we again saw a decrease of 8%.

2009 to 2010 these crimes showed no increase or decrease.

2010 to 2011 we saw another major increase of 73%.

 The next category of crimes is Property Crimes.  Property crimes include Arson, Burglary, Theft, Vehicle Theft and Vandalism.

 
During 2006 to 2007 these crimes increased 62%.

2007 to 2008 we saw a decrease of 29%.

2008 to 2009 we again saw a decrease of 27%.

2009 to 2010 these crimes jumped 38%

2010 to 2011 we saw an 11% increase.

 Our third category of crimes is Society Crimes.  Society crimes are vice crimes and include such offenses as prostitution, gambling, narcotic violations and child pornography.

 2006 to 2007 these crimes increased 150%.

2007 to 2008 we saw a decrease of 40%

2008 to 2009 we saw another decrease of 33%

2009 to 2010 these crimes increased 150%

2010 to 2011 we decreased 40%.

 

Our final classification of Crimes is Class B crimes.  These crimes are crimes not listed above.  They consist of bad checks, dui crimes, runaways, trespasses and all other crimes. 

 2006 to 2007 we saw increases of 215%

2007 to 2008 we dropped 6%

2008 to 2009 we saw another decrease of 19%

2009 to 2010 we jumped another increase of 53%

2010 to 2011 we dropped 42%

 During our last year of 2012:

Crimes against the Person increased 21%

Crimes against Property increased 92%

Crimes against Society increased 50%

Class B crimes decreased 18%

 

While Class B crimes decreased during 2012, we have to take into consideration that many of these crimes are detected during patrols of the community.  With our increases in Class A crimes, patrol time is reduced in order to deal with and investigate the Class A or serious crimes.  So this decrease may not mean that these crimes went down, it may also mean that these crimes went undetected.

 

When formulating a budget, the process would be real easy if we had a crystal ball and could see into the year 2013.  Since we do not, we have to rely on real data and use the Department’s 100 year plus police experience and formulate a budget that we feel will keep the community safe and provide proper police protection.  We formulate this recommendation with the balance of having the least impact on the tax rate while providing for the protection of life and property.

 In the future we will post our recommended 2013 budget and a line by line analysis of how it impacts your tax bill.  We will be doing an analysis on what it costs to hire a police officer, what we invest in them and why it is important to retain them.  We will also look at our juvenile crime rate and how it impacts school department costs.  We are in the process of proposing a plan to the School Committee and Board or Selectmen that will invest town funds to impact these problems and reduce thousands of dollars.

 Because of the rise in the Town Tax rate, we are hearing two voices in the community.  One voice is calling for cuts to our Budget.  The second voice is saying it is important to maintain public safety.  We are submitting what we see as a frugal budget recommendation that we see balances both.  What we recommend is not important.  What is important is what the community wants.  The best way you can speak to this is vote at the Town Meeting.  We also value your input.  Please email me at the police department if you have any comment or idea.  The email is tbrown@ne.twcbc.com  We will also post budget hearing dates during which we need your input.