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2017 police stats: some numbers down, some up

PERRY TOWNSHIP — Service calls and traffic citations were down, but adult criminal arrests, alarm calls, medical assists and narcotics complaints were up, according to Perry Township police stats for 2017.

Police Chief Mike Emigh said he’s not sure why numbers for complaints such as domestic violence and animals go up and others such as suspicious persons and well-being checks go down.

But when it comes to the drop in traffic citations, his explanation can be summed up in one word: staffing.

“It’s an off-year but I blame it on the officers coming and going,” he said.

Over the past year and a half, the department lost two longtime experienced patrol officers to retirement, Sgt. George Mlinarcik and Patrolman Don Paulin.

They also lost some experienced, productive officers, both full-time and part-time.

Emigh said he won’t be naming another sergeant until he gets the staffing stabilized, noting he needs a full-time officer and two part-time officers and he’s expecting to lose another part-timer.

The current full-time staff includes the chief, a detective and two patrolmen (one who’s still considered on probation). There are four part-time officers at the moment and that number has been changing lately as officers come and go.

“We’re losing experienced officers for higher paying jobs,” Emigh said.

As the new officers become more familiar with everything and move out of probationary status, traffic numbers will likely rise. In 2017, the number of traffic citations decreased to 344 from 443 the previous year. The calls for service dropped from 1,467 in 2016 to 1,391 in 2017. The only traffic citation that didn’t go down was for drunken driving arrests, with the numbers staying the same at 19 for both 2016 and 2017.

Speeding citations decreased from 443 to 347, expired registration citations decreased from 44 to 29, non-compliance suspensions decreased from 49 to 25 and failure to control citations decreased from 27 to 22. All the other traffic-related citation were down, too, but most by less than 10. On a good note, injury crash reports decreased by two, down to 15, along with property damage reports, which decreased by six, to 51 last year. Non-injury crash reports were up by a dozen to 74 and private property accidents increased by two, to 11 last year.

On the criminal side, Emigh drew a correlation between drugs and the increase in suicide attempts and medical assists. Suicide attempts jumped from 1 in 2016 to six in 2017 and the number of medical assists spiked from 36 in 2016 to 75 in 2017. Narcotics complaints increased from nine in 2016 to 11 in 2017.

“I think it’s the opioids,” he said.

When asked about the low number of narcotics complaints, he explained that most of their cases are referred to the Columbiana County Drug Task Force.

Thefts, burglaries, trespassing complaints, noise complaints, sex offenses, unwanted subjects, assaults and break-ins were all down. Juvenile complaints, traffic jams, suspicious vehicles and alarm calls were all up.

Adult arrests increased from 125 to 166 while juvenile arrests decreased from 3 to 2. Misdemeanor warrant arrests increased from 22 to 23 and felony warrant arrests decreased from six to five.

The report also showed a large increase in calls to assist motorists, from 50 to 81, and an increase in the number of assists for Salem Police from 28 up to 43 last year. The number of assists to other outside agencies increased from 23 to 28.

According to a chart showing where calls occurred, most of the police activity took place in the southwest sector of the township, accounting for 36 percent of the activity, closely followed by the northwest sector at 25 percent. For reporting purposes, the software program used by the police department has the township broken up into nine different sectors along with a 10th sector for unknown. The Salem Acres apartment complex on Prospect Street, C&C Trailer Court on West State Street and the trailers in the 400 block of Benton Road are in their own zones, with Salem Acres accounting for 2.5 percent of the calls and the two trailer parks both less than half of 1 percent. Calls outside of the township were 2 percent and calls inside the city of Salem were 3 percent.

Emigh said residents can help the police department by calling immediately when something happens — don’t wait a couple hours or couple days.

“That limits us on what we can do,” he said, adding they don’t mind getting calls from residents.

“We’re here for them and we will respond, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even on Christmas. That’s why we’re here,” he said.

It’s the residents’ tax dollars at work, he stressed, saying they will never be upset about being called.

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