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PDF versionOGDEN — A law enforcement task force is finding success in taking a bite out violent crime downtown, Police Chief Jon Greiner said Tuesday night.
During a work session, Greiner provided the city council with an update on the progress of the police department’s seven-member Crime Reduction Squad.
The squad was established in 2007 to tackle serious offenses, including homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary and prostitution in a high-crime area that extends from 20th Street to 30th Street between Washington and Harrison boulevards.
The squad’s efforts resulted in a 23 percent drop in crime within that area in 2008 compared with 2007 and is on target for an additional
3 percent decrease in offenses by the end of the year, Greiner said.
City Council Chairwoman Amy Wicks said the Crime Reduction Squad has been very visible in the downtown area.
The squad has been successful because of its concentration on keeping in contact with a large number of prison parolees who live in homes that have been carved up into single-family apartments in the downtown area, Greiner said.
The squad has made more than 1,900 parolee checks since its inception.
Many of the crimes that occur downtown are committed by parolees who reoffend, Greiner said.
As many as 3,000 parolees are in the Ogden area, he said.
“It’s not fair to the citizens of this community,†Greiner said of the inordinate amount of parolees in the city.
“It’s not fair to have to police them.â€
Parolees often settle in Ogden after being discharged from a 160-bed state-operated halfway house in West Ogden, Greiner said.
He said the halfway house is the largest of four such facilities in the state, with the other three being in Salt Lake City.
Clarification
Chesters,
In the worksession last night where this was discusssed I mentioned that I have noticed an increase in police presence in the East Central neighborhood (NOT downtown) since the crime reduction unit was initiated. This does not necessarily mean an increase or decrease in reported crimes or a change in perception of the residents, but there are more eyes and ears on the street and officers dedicated to handle issues in the area.
With all due respect, if there are problems in your neighborhood, report them. This includes gunshots, grafitti, noise violations, suspicious behavior and whatever else you are up against. It's hard to respond to something and address the problem if you are not aware it exists.
Regarding the statistics presented in our worksession or printed in this news outlet, I'm not sure that they are correct or accurate but that really would not change the decisions I have made regarding the police department in the time that I have served on the City Council. Our police department does what they can with the staffing and tools they have. They do a damn fine job of it in many instances. If we see an area of need and an opportunity to help prevent or solve problems facing our community and there are resources to do it it's a no-brainer to move ahead and try to solve the problem. Officer retention, adequate equipment, fair and equitable wages and benefits, training, adequate staffing, public safety, crime rates, public perception and how we are going to pay for it all are constant concerns.
There is that famous aphorism (usually
attributed to Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli): “There are three kinds of lies:
lies, damned lies, and statistics.â€
I prefer to use common sense when making decisions.
Utah Dem
As a resident in east central Ogden I have to agree with Chesters - drugs, gangs and graffiti are apparently the crimes of choice currently. About three years ago we forced out three or four households dealing in these crimes thanks to this special task force, but unfortunately we have new thugs in our neighborhood now.
If gangs are not illegal but their activities are why does it take so long to arrest them?
As I have read this newspaper over the years I find it quite interesting that recently uncover cops bought drugs from a dealer but they decided to buy drugs three times before they made the arrest - why is that?
Timing is Everything
It's good that Godfrey did this crowing now, after waiting for all the drive-by murders from this summer to subside.
Crimes involved
According to the story "The squad was established in 2007 to tackle serious offenses,
including homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary and prostitution
in a high-crime area that extends from 20th Street to 30th Street
between Washington and Harrison boulevards."
I presume, then the 23% reduction involves those crimes in the neighborhoods involved. If the reduction percentage involves other crimes instead of the serious offenses listed above, then that would indeed be news. It's something the SE ought to look into and check out. [Once again, Chief Greiner is a public official, and it should be standard policy for the SE to fact-check any self-serving announcement by any public official. Every time all the time. If the facts check out, great. And if they don't, that's news.]
While I understand the suspicion about Godfrey administration self-serving announcements fudging the facts --- it's happened so often the past --- I'd note that the story does include a comment from Councilwoman Wicks [who cannot possibly be dismissed as a Godfrey Administration flack] that the program has visibly increased police presence in central Ogden.
The Chief may have cherry picked his numbers. SE should fact-check his statements, of course. But we have as yet no evidence that he has, and so while cautious skepticism may be justified at this point, jumping to the conclusion that the program has not worked is not. .
crime categories unclear
The most commonly quoted crime statistic includes the following crimes: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, auto theft, and arson. Notably absent, among those listed in the article, are simple assault and prostitution. Now, maybe there's been an overall reduction in just about all crime categories so it doesn't matter which exact group of crimes Mr. Greiner chooses to include in his statistic. But if the statistic includes simple assault and prostitution, then it's not the same statistic that everyone else normally keeps track of. My main point is that this article doesn't say, one way or the other, which statistic Mr. Greiner has chosen to give us.
Crime Down
What a joke. In my nieghborhood nothing has changed. Its still the same old druggies, grafitti and gang bangers.Nothing is safe in my area.I dont know why Amy Wicks says its visible in the downtown area.It sure doesnt look like it.Open your eyes Amy.It sure hasnt changed any in the nieghborhood you live in.
skeptical
As reported, this statistic (the "23 percent drop in crime within that area") is meaningless. The article doesn't tell us what kinds of crimes are included in the statistic, or whether serious crimes are weighted more heavily than lesser crimes, or even whether the geographical area that's included in the statistic was decided before or after the fact. Because Mr. Greiner had so much freedom in choosing how to compile the statistic, and because he has a personal interest in making the statistic look good, and because he has been highly dishonest about Ogden's crime statistics in the past, there's a good chance that he cherry-picked the data.
Several weeks ago the Standard-Examiner reported a city-wide reduction, from 2007 to 2008, in the most commonly reported FBI crime statistic (which includes eight crime categories). This statistic is far more robust and the news certainly sounds good--but a one-year trend is still not conclusive. Furthermore, even this reduction could merely be an indication that fewer crimes are being reported to police.
Prior to 2008 there were no significant changes in the most common measures of Ogden's crime rates over at least the previous eight years. Of course, Godfrey claimed otherwise in his 2007 campaign. And when citizens asked for more data to back up the claims he was making then, the police department refused to release the data. The publicly available data up to 2007 is presented and analyzed here:
http://wcforum.blogspot.com/2008/09/ogden-crime-stats-revisited.html