Cheney crime declines

CHENEY – Crime in the city dropped by almost 10 percent in 2019, something officials attribute mainly to one aspect of the city’s police department — it’s size.

The department has been able to hire some new patrol officers the past few years, including one paid for by revenue from the 2015 levy lid lift. Police Chief John Hensley said this has made a difference with how officers’ patrol, allowing them the ability to get off of 1st Street and get into the neighborhoods more often than in the past.

“They have discretionary time to go looking for bad guys,” Hensley said.

This has led to not only a drop in incidents, down from 708 in 2018 to 639 in 2019, but an increase in arrests, up from 124 to 154. The department’s percentage of clearing cases has also increased from 18.5 percent to just over 30 percent, partly through changes to how those cases were reported in National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) which replaced the old Uniform Crime Reports system the department previously used.

The largest area of decline was in assaults, dropping from 341 to 239 overall, with intimidation incidents leading the way at 149, down from 226 in 2018. Simple assault declined from 89 to 69 and aggravated assault incidents dropped from 26 to 21, although arrests only increased by four from 64 to 68 in 2019.

One area where incidents increased was in drug/narcotic offenses, which jumped from 10 in 2019 to 25 last year, with over 95 percent of these in both years being violations for drugs rather than possession of drug equipment. Arrests consequently tripled in 2019, up from seven to 22.

Hensley said the increased stemmed from adding two new officers to the graveyard shift, which enabled the department to focus more on driving under the influence stops.

“As a result of that our numbers have really gone up,” he said. “We felt since we have sufficient resources now at night we should focus on these incidents.”

Another area of increase is vandalism, up to 73 from 65 in 2018. Fourteen of those cases stemmed from one incident in late December, resulting in several arrests.

For the most part, crime categories such as larceny/theft, fraud and sex offenses stayed relatively steady. With sex offenses, Hensley said many of these were cases of the two parties knowing each other and most were cleared — sometimes with charges.

“We don’t make a decision here whether a case is good (for charges) or should be dropped,” Hensley said. “We just present them to the prosecutor, who makes that decision.”

Hensley also said they’ve seen some reductions in incidents in “crime pocket” areas of the city. Officers are not responding as much as in the past to incidents in Terra Vista east of the railroad tracks, thanks to the property managers doing a better job of screening residential applications and responding to noise complaints. Problems are likely to continue at other areas such as Presnell’s trailer court and The Grove apartment complex, Hensley added, with most of these being domestic violence calls — the “number one issue in Cheney.”

“It’s (domestic violence) not just between spouses, but now roommates,” he said. “We do a lot of refereeing of those kinds of things.”

But while more officers have helped bring crime numbers down, Hensley said they could still use more bodies to bring another number down — overtime costs. The department is averaging $16,000 a month in overtime resulting from things ranging from injury to court dates to various leaves.

“Right now, we just don’t have enough bodies to cover the spots,” Hensley said. “The council is very concerned about it, as they should be.”

Hensley acknowledged some residents might not feel crime has decreased in Cheney, especially if they have been victimized by it. He also acknowledged that fear of crime happening is just as potent as a real incident.

“I think we’re providing pretty solid service out there,” he said. “The officers are able to spend time with people, rather than hustle to another call.”

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].