Mill Creek police were busier than ever in 2003, and crime statistics in numerous categories rose last year, but the city’s police chief says the community is hardly in the midst of a crime wave.
In 20 statistical categories tracked by Mill Creek police, 15 showed increases from 2002 to 2003. The department also set all-time highs for calls for service and adult arrests. The number of adult and juvenile arrests rose 38 and 35 percent, respectively, from 2002 to 2003.
Police chief Bob Crannell said he wasn’t surprised with the statistics shown in the department’s annual report.
“With our population increasing, the number of people here in the daytime, and the amount of construction going on, I was not surprised at all,” Crannell said.
The chief attributed the increase in most categories to the department having a full staff of officers – 19 comissioned personnel – for the first time in several years.
“Now that we have more officers, they’re working more residential patrols and more traffic patrols,” he said.
Mill Creek, however, is not suffering from violent crime. Of the more than 11,600 calls for service last year, only 112 cases related to assault, sex crimes, arson or robbery, and assault numbers fell 4 percent from 2002. While Mill Creek’s first bank robbery in four years took place in October, the city has not had a murder since 1986.
Statistically, the largest increase was in the number of suspended drivers the department is citing, as those numbers more than doubled in 2003 from 2002.
Crannell attributed that increase to a rise in the average traffic fine, which last July increased $15 to $101. Many drivers end up with suspended licenses in part because they cannot afford to pay traffic fines. “A lot of people just don’t have an extra $100 lying around,” he said.
Burglaries and motor vehicle thefts continued to rise in 2003, although the auto theft numbers remained relatively unchanged from 2002, as only two more thefts took place than the prior year. Most of the auto thefts are taking place in multi-family residential developments like apartment and condominium complexes, and commercial parking lots.
“They’re generally not being stolen from single-family neighborhoods,” Crannell said.
The department is taking steps to fight auto theft. It recently obtained a bait vehicle to catch those who break into or steal cars. In addition, four patrol cars are being equiped with Lo-Jack trackers. The Lo-Jack is a security system that, when activated, acts like a homing device by emitting a signal that police can track.
The bait car and the Lo-Jack trackers, which several other area departments are using, should be in use by mid-March, according to Det. Chris White.
“We’re really trying to make sure auto theft is kept to a minimum,” said White, adding that the crime is one of the areas on which the department is putting special emphasis.
As for burglaries, which reached a five-year high in 2003, Crannell attributed the 40 percent increase to increased construction in the city limits. At most of those sites, workers leave tools and household fixtures “lying around” and empty sites in the evening are prime targets.
While most statistics rose, one area dropped for the third consecutive year. Fifty-four DUIs took place last year, a 13 percent decrease from 2002. Last year’s figures are less than half the number of DUIs reported in 2000, when 122 such violations took place.
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