Increasing demands for service

No matter one's familiarity with the Cheney Police Department's year-end report, the statistic still jumps out at you like a bright, flashing neon sign.

In 2014, dispatchers in the department's communication division handled a record 55,018 calls, a 19.18 percent jump over 2013 numbers. And while the breakdown between calls for Cheney police and for Eastern Washington University officers remain near historical levels, 55 percent for Cheney and 45 percent for EWU, dispatch calls to Eastern jumped 22.65 percent while Cheney calls increased 16.40 percent.

Some might look at the number and see an increase in workload, which it is. Cheney Police Chief John Hensley sees it as a reflection of the public's confidence in the department to handle their needs, although the sheer volume of the calls did catch him off guard.

"I was a bit surprised that we got over the 50,000 mark," Hensley said. "That's significant."

Correspondingly, calls for service for Cheney patrol officers also increased, up just over 10 percent from 2013 to 7,956 calls. The previous four years, patrol calls for service have run between the mid-7,100s to low-7,200s.

Department Cmdr. Rick Campbell said it's important to differentiate between the two calls for service. A call where an officer responds to a request for service from someone locked out of a vehicle is one patrol call.

From dispatch's perspective, the initial call to the department is one call, the call to the officer is a second call, a return call to the individual is a third call and a call to a locksmith a fourth.

Campbell isn't surprised by the increase in calls either, noting dispatchers provide a variety of services, more than simply alerting officers to a citizen's need. The more people there are, the more requests for department services will take place.

"As the (EWU) student population grows, the city population grows, the calls will increase," Campbell said.

For Hensley, the disturbing statistics in the end of year report come from the 10 categories of offenses listed in the Uniform Crime Report. Cheney had witnessed a steady decline in reports, from 759 in 2010 to 531 in 2013.

That rose again last year to 606, a 12.37 percent jump. The biggest concern for Hensley is the up tick in property crimes. Between 2010 and 2012, Cheney averaged 250 theft reports per year, but saw a decrease to 208 in 2013.

As 2014 ended, officers had logged 215 reports, a figure that might have been below 200 if not for a rash of car thefts taking place from Nov. 19 – 22. Over that period, 19 third-degree theft and one second-degree theft reports were made, most coming from a small area near Salnave Elementary School and Salnave Park, as well as the Avalon Place development and Eagle Ridge Apartment complex along Betz Road.

"There were 17 in one night, with all but two having things placed in plain sight," Hensley said. "All of those were preventable."

Also increasing over 2013 numbers were assaults, domestic violence, restraining orders, motor vehicle thefts and rapes, the latter up from two to eight. One category of decline was drug offenses, dropping from 38 in 2012 to 23 in 2013 and seven in 2014.

Not increasing, and not reflected in the MAR, was officer response time, which Hensley said remains at a highly effective three minutes.

Another stat not reported is what Hensley termed as "clearance rate," the percentage with which a department investigates a crime, identifies a suspect and makes an arrest. The department is running a 30 percent clearance rate overall, better than the national average of 20 percent, and does very well when investigating crimes such as assault and rape.

"It's the property crimes that get you because you don't have any workable evidence," Hensley said.

Crime stats aside, Hensley is pleased with the overall professional growth within the agency. Line officers tell him morale is better than it's ever been, and only one citizen complaint was received in 2014.

There are numerous areas to be concerned about, such as overtime, staffing levels and replacing aging equipment, but overall Hensley believes his department's service is excellent.

"I'm very pleased with what we're doing right now," he said. "I go home at night and think, 'we did a good job today.'"

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].