Police see complaint, arrest numbers fall

Police see less arrests, more accidents The 2008 annual report, presented earlier this year to the Le Mars City Council by Police Chief Stu Dekkenga, showed that numbers in most categories were down, excluding accidents and a few other areas that showed increases. [Click to enlarge]

Is Le Mars simply becoming a more law-abiding community?

Police Chief Stu Dekkenga said he'd like to think so, but he's not jumping to conclusions.

"I hope it's for all the right reasons," he said.

What concerns him is that people may simply be calling in less -- according to the Le Mars Police 2008 Annual Report, calls reporting suspicious activity are down from 901 to 580 in one year.

"We appreciate calls like that. If people don't call in, that won't help anyone," Dekkenga said. "We'd much rather investigate a call than follow up on something that's happened."

Traffic warnings and tickets are down by nearly 600 in the past year, according to the 2008 report.

Dekkenga attributed some of that drop to less hours of Special Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) projects this year.

STEP projects, concentrated law enforcement at a specific location or during a specific time, are paid for through state dollars.

The Le Mars Police received $3,000 less in STEP dollars in 2008 than the year before.

"When STEP hours are cut, we see warnings, tickets and arrests go down," Dekkenga said.

As far as accidents, numbers were up by nine from 2007. Dekkenga attributes most of that slight increase to Mother Nature.

"In December we had all that bad weather," he said. "I believe we had more weather-related accidents."

The total 2008 accidents, 301, was still less than numbers from earlier years. The police recorded 320 accidents in 2006 and 363 in 2005.

Arrests overall are down by 113 from 2007 to 2008.

"Burglary arrests were up, drug arrests were about the same, but everything else was down," Dekkenga said, referring to categories like assaults, drug violations, public intoxication and traffic offenses.

Juvenile arrests were up slightly, although some categories of juvenile arrests dropped, like public intoxication which fell from 12 to 2 in one year.

"Does that mean we've solved underage drinking, no," Dekkenga said.

While the number of calls and less dollars from the state may explain some of the decreases, Dekkenga said seeing numbers go down across the board could be part of a welcome trend.

"I'm generally encouraged," he said. "I think it's a good thing."