May Crime Stats Rise Slightly Year Over Year, Too Early to Tell Why

It’s too early to tell what exactly caused the uptick in police activity during May 2012 compared to May 2011. 

But Police Chief Ernest Brown said there’s a good chance that some of it’s because he’s asked officers to do some things differently from retired Chief Robert Pavelchik. 

The number of minutes spent responding to events is up 183 percent year over year for May, according to Brown’s report. That could be due in part to the fact that Brown said he has asked officers to keep the clock running on events until they finish writing the case report. Previously, he said officers would frequently mark an event as closed even if they still had some administrative work to complete. 

Self-generated events—activity such as traffic stops initiated by an officer—rose 134 percent, Brown’s report said. He said the increased could be attributed to officers documenting their time in more detail. 

May was the first month that Brown was able to compare monthly statistics year over year because that was the month the shifted its dispatch services to DU-COMM in 2011. 

Once the department has year-over-year data for three months, Brown said he will bring the information to the sergeants meeting to see what insights they have to offer.

Brown joined the Darien Police Department in November. He said he will be able to more readily determine if changes in activity patterns are more likely attributable to procedural changes, an increase in crime or an anomaly after he’s been with the department a little longer.

Click the photo box above to see Brown’s full report.