Polk Co. Police Chief: Crime is up, and we’re working on it

A single, simple message from Polk County Police Chief Kenny Dodd to local residents went as follows during the public safety committee meeting in July.

“Crime statistics are up, and we know about it and are working on it,” he said.

Statistics provided by the Polk County Police Department between the beginning of the year through the end of June show some 1,052 incidents reported thus far.

Among those incidents that are the most reported, Dodd said, are theft by taking, entering auto and burglary.

“It’s a problem we’re continually trying to work on, and we’ve identified that several of these incidents are being done by the same group of juveniles,” he said.

Some of those juveniles have now reached the age of 17, when youngsters can be charged and held as adults in the state of Georgia. Though they are booked and charged, Dodd said that “they get out on bond and go right back to doing what they were.”

Dodd said overall the number of thefts and burglaries were up, and that the county is working to combat by providing an additional officer to work on the V.I.C.E. unit.

However, not even the Chief of Police – or at least one of his family members – is immune to the problem.

He told members during the July 30 public safety committee meeting that his son was the victim of a vehicle break-in while the family ate at a local restaurant in previous weeks. Dodd said the family was unable to track down the perpetra-tors, who ended up using his daughter-in-law’s debit card to purchase fuel at a Paulding County gas station.

“It’s a problem, even for my family,” he said. “It’s not something we’re taking lightly.”

Since the beginning of the year, more than $1.7 million in items have been taken from local residents, and only $106,669 have been recovered.

The problem of not being able to solve theft cases, as Dodd has said in the past, is a nationwide issue. He pointed out the rate of solving theft cases in Polk is about on average with that nationwide, well below the rate at which violent crimes are solved.

According to figures from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2010, “Clearance data for property crimes revealed that 21.1 per- cent of larceny-theft offenses were cleared, 12.4 percent of burglary offenses were cleared, and 11.8 percent of motor vehicle theft offenses were cleared.”

More updated data from 2013 confirms a downward trend of crime in the United States overall according to the FBI sta-tistics with a drop in overall property crime.

“In 2013, there were an estimated 8,632,512 property crime offenses in the nation. The 2-year trend showed that property crime declined 4.1 percent in 2013 when compared to the 2012 estimate. The 10-year trend showed that property crime of-fenses decreased 16.3 percent in 2013 when compared with the 2004 estimate,” the report stated, which can be found online at fbi.gov.

Though there’s a drop in property crime, there’s been no cor- responding uptick in clearance rate based on FBI data.

The bureau reported that even though the overall number of thefts are down, the 22.4 percent rate of solving cases – or clearance rate – is not much better than the 2010 rate of 21.1 percent. The rate at which burglaries and motor vehicle thefts – 13 and 14 percent – are solved isn’t much better.

To avoid becoming victims of theft, Dodd wants to remind local residents the best way to keep their items safe is to always make sure to take valuables inside with them at the end of the day after getting out of the car, and to make sure doors and windows are always secure at home and in the car.

Security systems, Dodd said, are also a valuable tool in the fight against burglary and theft, but not foolproof in that false alarms have been commonplace problems with keeping his own force on task.

“We get a lot of calls that aren’t really crime related, or for false fire alarms and burglar alarms,” he said. “We have to respond to those, which takes time away from my officers getting to do other police work.”