Police calls on the rise in Carlisle, but serious crimes aren't up

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By David Blymire, Sentinel Reporter, February 25, 2007

Thefts,traffic tickets and community policing were just some of the reasons Carlisle police were busy last year.

The $3.3 million department handled 19,580 calls for service in 2006, an 18 percent increase over 2005.

That's according to the Carlisle Police Department's 2006 annual report, which raises concerns about the department's workload but stops short of suggesting the borough hire more police officers. The department currently has 33 officers, including the chief and two lieutenants who handle mainly administrative duties.

But while overall calls are up, serious crime, such as murder, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, arson and motor vehicle theft, either has held steady over the past four years or declined.

“With the information I have now, I do not see a need to increase the size of the force,” Carlisle Mayor Kirk Wilson said last week.

The report attributes the “significant” rise in police activity to more citizens asking for police help, officers initiating enforcement actions and additional reports of crime.

Borough officials should “monitor our calls for service levels in the coming months so as to keep a handle on department workload and service delivery levels,” the report notes.

The report goes on to call the increase a “double-edged sword.”

“While it may cause the department to become busier, we encourage the public to report problems to the police,” the report continues. “We take the approach that problems, including crime, cannot be dealt with unless the police are made aware of them. We constantly tell neighborhood groups and the public as a whole to report incidents. We're quite sure that this policy is responsible for at least some of the increase in calls for service.”

Details from the report include:

€ Thefts rose by 102 over the previous year to 553 cases in 2006, the only one of the more serious “Part I” offenses to rise dramatically.

€ Police made 2,868 traffic arrests in 2006, up more than 600 from 2005; and another 112 DUI arrests, up from 82 in 2005.

€ The overall number of criminal cases has declined from 2,063 in 2003 to 1,835 in 2006.

Wilson thinks many of the thefts can be attributed to drug use.

Police made 179 drug arrests last year and two detectives have been assigned solely to drug enforcement.

“Everybody says drug use is a victimless crime,” Wilson said. “The fact of the matter is many persons who use drugs might not work and have to get their money somehow.”

Police Chief Stephen Margeson said he has no specific statistics on the link but conservatively estimates that at least one-third of all crime is related to drug activity.

“That's not unique to Carlisle, that's a national phenomenon,” he said.

Wilson also thinks the growth of neighborhood watch groups has contributed to the rising number of calls.

Community policing officers attend neighborhood watch meetings and encourage the groups to report suspicious activity.

“I also think our cops are being more proactive,” he said, adding officers check out suspicious activity if they see it.

Besides crime, the department stepped up its traffic enforcement last year in residential areas, resulting in a 31 percent increase in traffic arrests.

That could increase this year with the borough's purchase in October 2006 of a new wireless traffic speed timing device.

In Pennsylvania, where municipal police departments are banned from using radar, the system is “the best technology available,” Margeson said.

The unit uses laser beams to measure vehicle speed and sends that information back to the police officer, Margeson said.