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Report: crime ;,
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down in village
BY SARAII STOVER
Staff writer
NORTH PALM BEACI I --
Crime is officially down in
North Palm Beach.
At least that's what the vil-
lage's annual crime report
shows. The recently -com-
pleted report showed that
crime has decreased 29 per-
cent in the last year. The
report was written by public
safety director and police
Chief Steve Canfield.
"I believe the reason we
had such a successful year
was the joint effort by our
staff. Our goal is to provide
the hest service we can for
our citizens," he said.
Iarcenies and burglaries
See CRIME, A7
Friday, April 25, 2008
Crime
From page Al
were the crimes with the
biggest drops, from 213 in
2006 to 161 in 2007 and from
101 in 2006 to 64, last year.
These crimes, and rape, rob-
bery, aggravated assault and
motor vehicle theft, account-
ed for 397 of the offenses in
2006, but only 281 this past
year.
As the amount of crime
decreased, the number of
arrests was up 40 percent to
507.
The differences can be
attributed to a few things, the
chief said.
For instance, officers on
road patrol increase visits to
areas where crime is occur-
ring and detectives get crime
analysis information that
helps them identify suspects,
the report showed.
The department added a
crime analyst unit in October
2007. The unit tracks crimes
and trends, and works with
other agencies. One tool that
has come out of the collabo-
ration is an offender -tracking
program, which includes a list
of criminals who frequent the
area, making it easier for offi-
cers to check information
already in the system to seek
possible suspects when
crimes occur, said Chief Can-
field.
Another reason crime is
down could be the work done
by the crime prevention unit.
Along with passing out
magnets with the depart-
ment's phone numbers, dis-
tributing gun locks and pro-
viding other preventative
items, unit officers issue
crime opportunity cards to
residents and businesses in
the area if they notice some-
thing about a car, property or
location that makes it more
likely to be a target of crime.
The report states that 255 of
these cards were issued last
year.
Cracking down on driving
under the influence was an
area the officers made a prior-
ity this past year and succeed-
ed, with 36 arrests to last year's
13 for driving while intoxicat-
ed and 236 to last year's 138
for narcotics offenses.
wanted to emphasize that a
lot of the drug arrests, as well
as the arrests for crimes, came
from people transitloning
through the area, he said.
Another big achievement
for the department in 2007
was their clearance rate of 26
percent.
Clearing a crime means
either making an arrest,
declaring it unfounded or vic-
tims not filing charges, which
is known as an exceptional
clear.
Crimes are declared
unfounded, for example, if
someone reports a car stolen
and then it turns out he or she
wanted to file an insurance
claim, said Chief Canfield.
An exceptional clear is
when a crime occurs, but
someone then realizes it was
done by a friend or family
member and does not want to
file charges, he said.
Ifowever, the majority of
crimes in the village are
cleared by making arrests,
Chief Canfield said.
The village's clearance rate
is better than the county's and
state's rates, according to the
report.
Data in the uniform Crime
Report by the Florida Depart-
ment of Law Enforcement
shows that Palm Beach Coun-
ty had a clearance rate of 18.9
percent for the first half of
2007, while the state's rate was
22.2 percent. Chief Canfield
credits cooperation between
officers and residents for the
remarkable rate.
"It really is a joint effort
between the police and the
community if the community
cooperates with us, we have a
much better chance of solving
a crime. Many people in the
community know officers by
their first names and feel
comfortable talking to them,"
he said.
In addition to visible
improvements in the com-
munity, the department has
also made some strides inter-
nally.
For instance, officers now
receive more training, in addi-
tion to speeding up the report
process by using an electronic
format. Each of the depart-
ment's cars is supplied with a
laptop computer, so officers
can easily write reports from
crime scenes, as well as view
www.Hometown
The department is now
working on updating its radio
system to the 800-megahertz
system used by several agen-
cies, which makes it possible
to communicate with other
police departments when
needed.
In response to an increase
in criminal activity on school
campuses throughout the
country, the department initi-
ated a safe school plan and
has flour plans, diagrams and
photos of all the educational
facilities in the area, so they
can plan accordingly if need-
ed.
The fire rescue division of
the public safety department
has increased its training as
well, with personnel complet-
ing 6,223 hours of flashover,
marina fire and other training
this past year.
While. the department has
made some significant
improvements in 2007, it is
not slowing down yet.
One of the main goals for
2008 is to decrease the
amount of car accidents that
are occurring as the number
has risen recently, according
to the report.
The analyst unit is going to
review accident data and
determine main areas that
seem conducive to accidents,
and the department has also
started a system of cracking
complaints that come from
residents or officers about
drivers, as the report said.
Although the traffic acci-
dent increase was not drastic,
it got Chief Canfield thinking
about curbing the problem,
he said.
Some of the locations
where accidents are frequent-
ly occurring include North -
lake Boulevard and U.S. I,
Northlake and Alternate AlA,
Northlake and Prosperity
Farms Road, and Prosperity
and lighthouse Drive, said
Chief Canfield.
As for fire rescue, the cur-
rent rescue ambulance will be
replaced and the majority of
EMTs on staff will soon be cer-
tified paramedics, which
means they will be able to do
more for patients on scene
before they arrive at the hos-
pital, said Chief Canfield.
To view are annual crime
report, visit wtvw.village-
npb.org, ar call the depart-