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

Darien Police Chief Ernest Brown said he'll need more months' worth of data to determine whether it's attributable to an anomaly, a change in crime patterns or a shift in policies after he joined the department.

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 …

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Chief Ernest Brown: May Statistics Support Reallocating Officers

Brown said he would like to add officers during the busiest times of the day.

The hours between 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. were the busiest time for 911 calls for police service during May, Chief Ernest Brown said during Monday's Police Committee meeting. Forty-seven percent of the 911 calls occurred during the third watch, compared to 18 percent during the first watch (11 p.m.-7 a.m.) and 23 percent during the second watch (7 a.m.-3 p.m.). Brown said the data supports his theory on reallocating police resources. "It clearly suggests that one of the changes to make is creating a power shift that addresses the increase of calls during that time," Brown said.  One way to do that would be to split the detective shift so some are on duty and available for street patrols, if necessary, during the third watch, he said. Brown …

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Chief Brown: Workload Analysis is a Tool for Scheduling, Not Staffing

The police chief presented results from his eight-month workload analysis at Thursday's Police Committee meeting.

Rumors have flown since Police Chief Ernest Brown announced he would conduct a workload analysis on the Darien Police Department. But as Brown presented the full eight-month report during Thursday’s Police Committee meeting, he said that it’s not meant to help determine the number of police officers on staff. Rather, he plans to use the analysis to efficiently schedule officers during the times of the day when they are most needed.  The level of 911 calls is generally low, for example, from 2-7 a.m., he said.  “It’s counterintuitive to maintain the same staffing levels as when we know we’re getting a lot of calls,” he said. “If we’re getting the lion’s share of calls from residents (during a different time), we have to be as responsive as …

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City Mulls Several Crossing Guard Staffing Options

Members of the Police Committee said Thursday it was premature to make a recommendation.

What began as a conversation about whether to contract an outside firm for crossing guards morphed into a Police Committee discussion Thursday about other options for handling the role. City Administrator Bryon Vana said that at Monday’s City Council meeting he will float the idea of asking District 61 assume responsibility for crossing guard employment as one possible alternative. The city employs three part-time crossing guards at two intersections near District 61 schools, costing the city a shade fewer than $24,000 annually. The Darien Police Department this week proposed contracting Andy Frain Services to hire, train and supervise crossing guards—not to save money but to help staff the positions more efficiently. When a crossing guard…

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City Considers Outsourcing Crossing Guard Positions

Andy Frain Services could assume responsibility for hiring, training, supervising and scheduling Darien's three part-time crossing guard positions, according to a city memo.

Staffing Darien’s crossing guard positions could become an outside job. The Police Committee is scheduled to discuss Thursday the possibility of contracting the staffing firm Andy Frain Services to provide crossing guards for two locations in Darien.  The change wouldn’t be a money-saving move so much as an effort to more efficiently staff the positions, according to a city memo. Darien employs two part-time crossing guards at the intersection of Cass and 75th Street and one guard at Adams and 75th. When one is absent, either the community service officer or a sworn police officer must then staff the corner, pulling them off other Darien Police Department duties.  The city paid roughly  $23,800 in crossing guard salaries during fiscal year…

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Darien Police Reports

By the Numbers: March 2012 Crime Statistics

Police Chief Ernest Brown presented a report of criminal activity during February in Darien.

There were 90 arrests in Darien from March 1-March 28, Chief Ernest Brown wrote in a report released last week. It was an increase of one over February, during which the Darien Police Department made 89 arrests. The demographics of people who were arrested break down as follows: Officers wrote case reports for 198 incidents. Some of the offenses include: Overall, there were 2,720 police events during Feburary, the report said. Patrol officers responded to 2,220, while civilans or DU-COMM personnel handled 500 of them. Darien residents made 526 9-1-1 calls during March. Police issued a total of 385 citations. Nearly 85 percent were traffic related. The busiest days of the week were Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The DU-COMM dispatch center…

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Darien Police Adjust to Working with DU-COMM Dispatch Center

Chief Ernest Brown and Deputy Chief John Cooper talked Thursday about some of the challenges the department has faced since switching to DU-COMM's dispatch services in May 2011.

Change is always tough — especially when you’re moving police dispatch services for a 23,000-resident town to a center miles away.  But despite some minor glitches, Darien Police Chief Ernest Brown said that the transition from closing Darien’s own dispatch center to using DU-COMM’s services is going well. “We have to recognize after 10 months, we’re running a lot smoother than we should have expected,” he said during Thursday’s Police Committee meeting.  Deputy Chief John Cooper presented a report of some of the issues the department has faced through the switch.  Many of the bumps are a simply a result of a new way of doing things, he said. Darien’s officers were previously dispatched using their badge number, which Cooper compared to a …

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Darien Police Reports

By the Numbers: February 2012 Crime Statistics

Police Chief Ernest Brown presented a report of criminal activity during February in Darien.

There were 89 arrests in Darien during the month of February, Chief Ernest Brown wrote in a report released last week. It was an increase of one over January, during which the Darien Police Department made 88 arrests. The demographics of people who were arrested break down as follows: Officers wrote case reports for 196 incidents. Some of the offenses include: Overall, there were 2,256 calls for police service. Citations were issued in 366 of the cases. Sundays were busiest, with 79 total citations reported. Eighty-five percent of the citations were written during traffic stops. The DU-COMM dispatch center provided the statistics for Brown's report.

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Plans for Super Walmart in Darien Move Forward

City, store and real estate officials plan to meet Wednesday, City Administrator Bryon Vana tells a town hall meeting that also included questions on police staffing, electrical aggregation and water rates.

Plans to develop a Walmart Super Center in Darien have been progressing slowly to this point, but City Administrator Bryon Vana told a town hall meeting Thursday that those plans may be about to get a major push forward. Vana told 10 residents attending a meeting hosted by Sixth Ward Alderman Sylvia McIvor that company and city officials will meet Wednesday with representatives of Inland Real Estate to try to finalize an agreement to move ahead with the expansion of the store on 75th Street. “Walmart is in their due diligence period,” Vana said. “I think they’re looking at construction costs now and getting those final numbers and estimates underway. … They’re putting the pencil to the paper; they’re getting better estimates.” Vana said …

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