City crime down in 2011

The year 2011 was a good year for the Placerville Police Department, according to the annual crime statistics report presented to Placerville City Council by Police Chief George Nielsen at Tuesday's City Council meeting.

The detailed report broke out crime statistics into 12 categories and included the number of arrests, citations and calls for service. In five categories, that of sexual assault, assault, burglary and accidents, there was a decrease, especially in the area of burglary down from 77 in 2010 to 61 in 2011. In five other categories, homicide, robbery, arson, child abuse and vehicle thefts, there was an increase from 2010. The number of hate crimes remained at 0 and the number of sexual battery cases remained at 3 .

The single homicide in 2011 was the murder of  Schnell School Principal Sam La Cara, said Nielsen. The number of vehicle thefts and vehicle burglaries took a spike, with thefts jumping from 14 in 2010 t0 21 in 2011 and the number of vehicle burglaries increasing in 2011  to 23 after only 7 in 2010.

"The increase concerns us," said Nielsen, "but it is an increase that is happening regionally and may have something to do with the economy."

The report also detailed crime statistics over a 12-year span of time and the good news is that the crime rate per thousand people in 2011 was less than 30 percent. Only 2009 boasted a lower crime rate in the 12 years of the report.

"We're really proud that over the last eight years crime has decreased by 47 percent," said Nielsen. "Part of that is being better at what we do; part is having well-trained officers and part is the open lines of communication and the partnership with the public through events like public National Night Out. People report more crimes; we take action and crime goes down."

The average response time for calls also decreased to an average of  4 minutes and 42 seconds, the lowest time since records have been kept.

"Our goal was to get the response time under five minutes from the time the dispatcher receives the call to the time an officer is on the scene," said Nielsen.

While calls for service went from 13,391 in 2010 to 14,064 in 2011, they were down overall from the 12-year average of 16,029, which Nielsen attributed to a reduction in staffing.

"We receive calls for service from the public, but also from officers out in the field who notice activity and make the call, " said Nielsen. "Our traffic officer's position has all but been eliminated and part of the position included looking for activity and calling it in."

The 2011 Crime Statistics report will be posted for public viewing on the city of Placerville's Website at cityofplacerville.org.

"We look at the trends from year to year and over a period of time," said Nielsen, "and we look at what we can do to improve."