Violent Crime Up, Police Staffing Down in Pepperell
The FBI released the nation’s crime statistics for 2013 last week. Pepperell, like the nation, saw a decrease in significant total crime compared to previous years. A decrease in crime is always good news. But where do Pepperell’s statistics compare to neighboring towns? I did some quick research on the towns and police departments that feed into our court system – Ayer District Court. I took the total number of violent crimes and property crimes from the FBI’s statistics and made a “Total Crime” figure. Please keep in mind that the name is somewhat misleading as there are other crimes that do not fall into the FBI’s categories of “Violent Crime” and “Property Crime”. Additionally, we all understand that these are just crimes that are reported to police. No one really knows the real crime statistics! Let’s take a look at Pepperell compared to these other towns and please remember that everything is relative – none of these are crime-riddled or unsafe towns. All of these crimes rates are relatively low.
If you look at the attached chart, you’ll see that Pepperell had the second highest “Total Crime”, one crime behind the town of Ayer. Unfortunately Pepperell was the highest of all towns in “Violent Crime” by a decent margin – the same number as our direct neighbors Dunstable, Groton and Townsend combined. Violent crimes are crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Property crimes are basically some form of stealing. Generally speaking, property crimes are often reported after the fact, and don’t require an immediate police response. Violent crimes, however, tend to be active when reported and involve a victim who often needs immediate assistance.
When we talk about available assistance for victims of crime, we are usually talking about police and sometimes the fire department/emergency medical services. Having officers on the street to respond to and investigate these crimes is of vital importance. So where does Pepperell stack up versus these Ayer District Court towns in the number of police officers? A commonly used statistic to measure police department staffing is “Police Officers per 1,000 Population”. The FBI reports that for 2013 the average “Officers per 1,000 Population” ratio in New England and throughout the country was “2.2”. As you can see in the chart on the bottom left, only Dunstable and Ayer are at or above that total. You will also see that unfortunately we rank last. (We now fall even further below Shirley as they recently approved a tenth officer position last week.) The chart on the bottom right also shows that we have the highest amount of total reported crime per police officer. (Just to be clear – that’s crime reported to officers, not committed by officers!)
So, what does this all mean? As previously stated, these statistics do not measure all crime. The staffing levels and ratios also do not reflect everything that police officers do, including the service component of “protect and serve”. In my opinion we can only really speak in general terms about any of these statistics. Compared to these other towns, Pepperell is at or near the top in the crime categories and at the bottom in full-time police officer staffing. Even generally speaking, being high in crime in low in police officers is obviously not good.
Pepperell recently voted down two overrides that would have returned two full-time officers to our staff. Even with those two officers, we would only be at an “Officers per 1,000 Population” ratio of 1.34, just barely above Shirley. I realize that the override votes were large and for general government, but are these statistics what Pepperell residents find acceptable? I am interested in hearing your comments on this topic.
Chief Scott