The first six months of 2010 has brought with it a rise in the number of domestic disturbance complaints, according to Sulphur Police Chief Chris Abrahams.
Abrahams was the speaker at the Sulphur Rotary Club on Wednesday.
The Sulphur Police Department has dealt with 137 disturbance calls so far in 2010, and it's the number one citizen complaint that his department deals with.
"This is probably the worst kind of call," the police chief said, noting that domestic violence situations take a special kind of touch that other complaints don't.
"Obviously, when you get a disturbance call that entails domestic violence. It's been a very big issue here, particularly in the last two years. I've had to get my officers specially trained in domestic violence methods," he said.
It's a different kind of crime, Abrahams said.
"The criteria of how you look at these things have changed. Now, it probably takes officers 30 to 45 minutes to sit down and actually get enough evidence to decide which one was the primary offender."
"I remember when I was coming up in the department, you go on a disturbance, it gets into a 'he said/she said' situation, and you simply take both of them to jail. It's all changed," Abrahams said.
"I wish is was Starsky and Hutch, but it ain't."
Overall, Abrahams said that citizen complaints were down 602 from the first six months of 2009 to 14,265 complaints called into the police department. That's 594 complaints for the 24 uniformed officers (three on military leave) employed by the Sulphur Police Department.
"Break that down into, say, five officers on the road. How many calls do they handle? They don't have a lot of time to do very much," Abrahams said.
"We try to have at least four officers out at all times. They stay pretty busy."
The number of officers patrolling Sulphur's streets is 'adequate,' Abrahams said, but also said that more officers would be helpful.
Incident reports are up in 2010, from 1378 in the first six months of 2009 to 1436 in 2010. Arrests are also up by 45, from 689 in the first six months of 2009 to 734 so far in 2010.
Abrahams said that the top offense in those arrests is possession of a controlled substance, with 134 arrests in 2010 so far; the second largest number of offenses involved thefts, numbering 107.
Aside from police stats, Abrahams also spoke briefly on the City of Sulphur's one half cent sales tax renewal on the ballot in October.
"Several people have heard about the upcoming elections that could help in continuing the quality of service we have in the community. The Sulphur Police Department is no different, and we are feeling the pressure of a tightening budget. If the renewal doesn't pass, it will result in lessening services throughout the city," Abrahams said.
He encourages Sulphur residents to head to the polls and vote for the renewal on October 2.
|
|
|
The first six months of 2010 has brought with it a rise in the number of domestic disturbance complaints, according to Sulphur Police Chief Chris Abrahams.
Abrahams was the speaker at the Sulphur Rotary Club on Wednesday.
The Sulphur Police Department has dealt with 137 disturbance calls so far in 2010, and it's the number one citizen complaint that his department deals with.
"This is probably the worst kind of call," the police chief said, noting that domestic violence situations take a special kind of touch that other complaints don't.
"Obviously, when you get a disturbance call that entails domestic violence. It's been a very big issue here, particularly in the last two years. I've had to get my officers specially trained in domestic violence methods," he said.
It's a different kind of crime, Abrahams said.
"The criteria of how you look at these things have changed. Now, it probably takes officers 30 to 45 minutes to sit down and actually get enough evidence to decide which one was the primary offender."
"I remember when I was coming up in the department, you go on a disturbance, it gets into a 'he said/she said' situation, and you simply take both of them to jail. It's all changed," Abrahams said.
"I wish is was Starsky and Hutch, but it ain't."
Overall, Abrahams said that citizen complaints were down 602 from the first six months of 2009 to 14,265 complaints called into the police department. That's 594 complaints for the 24 uniformed officers (three on military leave) employed by the Sulphur Police Department.
"Break that down into, say, five officers on the road. How many calls do they handle? They don't have a lot of time to do very much," Abrahams said.
"We try to have at least four officers out at all times. They stay pretty busy."
The number of officers patrolling Sulphur's streets is 'adequate,' Abrahams said, but also said that more officers would be helpful.
Incident reports are up in 2010, from 1378 in the first six months of 2009 to 1436 in 2010. Arrests are also up by 45, from 689 in the first six months of 2009 to 734 so far in 2010.
Abrahams said that the top offense in those arrests is possession of a controlled substance, with 134 arrests in 2010 so far; the second largest number of offenses involved thefts, numbering 107.
Aside from police stats, Abrahams also spoke briefly on the City of Sulphur's one half cent sales tax renewal on the ballot in October.
"Several people have heard about the upcoming elections that could help in continuing the quality of service we have in the community. The Sulphur Police Department is no different, and we are feeling the pressure of a tightening budget. If the renewal doesn't pass, it will result in lessening services throughout the city," Abrahams said.
He encourages Sulphur residents to head to the polls and vote for the renewal on October 2.
