By Doug Page Dayton Daily News
DAYTON, Ohio — The Dayton Police Department gave details Thursday of its latest technique that, in part, has led to the decrease in most property crimes and given the best value for the dollar to taxpayers.
"Our remarkable reduction in crime comes from increased cooperation from the community and improved police response," Chief Richard Biehl said at a media briefing to described the citywide Pattern Response.
"The improved response is the most effective, most efficient way to use our resources," said Lt. Chris Williams, commander of the East Patrol Operations Division. "We get the most bang for our (taxpayers’) buck."
In 2011, serious violent crime decreased 16 percent and major property crime dropped 6 percent from 2010, according to department numbers.
Williams said crime prevention specialists in each district are combing through the crime data looking for patterns – three or more similar offenses over a several days or weeks – or sprees – a series of identical crimes in a specific area that occur within hours.
Once spotted and command informed, an alert is issue and assigned to one or more units for action that night, Williams said.
Since Dec. 6, officers have interrupted 20 patterns or sprees with multiple arrests, which have led in many cases to confessions to other crimes, he said. Williams did not have the exact number of arrests Thursday, saying detectives were still collating those numbers.
Williams said the speed of the communications paired with intelligence from the property crime detectives have led to a 49 percent increase in felony property crime-related arrests.
"In the year before reorganization, we had 179 such arrests in the old 1st and 2nd districts. In less than 12 months since reorganization, EPOD has had 267 arrests," the lieutenant said.
The old 1st and 2nd districts now make up the East Patrol Operations Division.
The department reorganized in the first quarter of 2011 merging five patrol district into three – East, West and Central patrol operations districts.
Part of that reorganization included moving the property crime detectives from the downtown Public Safety Building to the patrol operations districts.
"The increase in arrests shows the quality of work and communications between the patrol officers and the detectives," Williams said.
Copyright 2012 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.
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