Cheney police activity slows in month of May

By BECKY THOMAS

Staff Reporter

Although Uniform Crime Reporting crimes continued to climb, the Cheney Police Department saw activity level off as calls for service, alcohol arrests and traffic enforcement numbers declined in May, according to its Monthly Accountability Report.

Though UCR crimes rose from 76 in April to 92 in May, the numbers remain lower than 2009, which saw 110 reportable offenses by the end of May.

“The overall is generally lower,” Sgt. Dave Mather said. “However, we had quite a few more assaults and more burglaries.”

There have been 17 assaults so far this year compared to nine last year, and 11 burglaries compared to five last year.

As 2010 progresses, alcohol arrests have remained low in Cheney. While there were 41 alcohol arrests through May last year, there have been just 11 so far this year. CPD officials attribute the lack of arrests to a general toning-down of the university population.

“We've had far less house parties in town than we had last year,” Mather said, adding that the Police Department worked with Greek organizations and athletic teams to educate EWU students about following drinking laws.

Also in May, traffic enforcement activity dropped off drastically over April's numbers, but returned to match closely with the first three months of the year. Mather said the department had several grants to do emphasis patrols in April, which he attributed to the large number of citations. Year-to-date citations were 59 over 2009's 53.

Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].