Chief of Police: Crime Down for First Half of '11

As police and emergency personnel observed and celebrated across town at DeHart Park, Chief of Police Robert Cimino was at Maplewood Town Hall giving the Township Committee some good news about community and policing.

"We're doing well," said Cimino. He was referring to the fact that crime in Maplewood is down 9.2% from January 1 through June 30, 2011, as compared to the first six months of 2010.

"We're busy, we've had more calls," said Cimino, referring to the fact that Maplewood Police answered more than 19,000 calls in the first six months of 2011, putting them on a pace for nearly 40,000 calls for the year. "But overall crime is down."

The one major area where crime was a bit higher than 2010 was in the category of thefts. Maplewood Police had recorded 148 thefts for the year as of June 30 — compared to 142 for the same period in 2010.

Cimino said that police were treating the spike in thefts with Crime Suppression Details, but he noted that "in comparison to more dangerous violent crimes like robbery, we do concentrate by priority on those crimes." Cimino said robbery was down 35% with 9 incidents in 2011 through June 30 (with 5 armed robberies and 4 strong-armed robberies) compared to 17 through the same time period in 2010.

Another positive trend was a drop in burglaries by 23% (30 in the first half of 2011 as compared to 39 in the first six months of 2010). Assaults — both simple and aggravated — were down 16 from 2010 to 2011 (from 71 to 55).

Cimino reported that there had been one arson, no rapes and no homicides — "thankfully."

"I have to credit the officers and the cooperation with neighboring communities," said Cimino.

Cimino detailed the efforts of the Crime Suppression Team — putting additional uniformed and plain clothes police in assigned areas where past crimes had occurred or future crimes were predicted to occur. The team places details in targeted areas in addition to regular police patrols.

Cimino stressed that the numbers that he was presenting were not official and had not been filed with the state as yet.

When asked by Vice Mayor Kathy Leventhal how crime rates in the Hilton and Lightening Brook areas had fared — these neighborhoods had seen a spike in burglaries, attempted burglaries and thefts from auto last year — Cimino said he had not yet run those numbers for the first six months of the year, "but generalizing from what we've heard and seen, we've seen an improvement. We've seen some successes."

Cimino said that Maplewood Police also continued to promote their Crime Prevention Services where police will come and perform a security audit of residents' homes. Although there had been a backlog of requests, Cimino said that "we've been able to make our officers available. We're up to speed on this now."

Police also continued to use Security Awareness Forms to notify citizens when they left their cars unlocked, left valuable items displayed within their cars or, for instance, left mail visibly piling up in their mailboxes.

"We're trying to limit victimization," said Cimino.

Mayor Vic DeLuca was complimentary. "Thanks to all your fine officers," said DeLuca, " and let them know the Township Committee supports their efforts."