Property Crimes Down, Traffic Collisions Up, Danville PD Annual Report Says

The Danville Police Department annual report for 2011 has been released. Police Chief Steve Simpkins presented the report to the Danville Town Council last week.

Though Simpkins said one incident of any type is one too many, it was a mostly positive presentation.

Most crime statistics are trending down, including violent crimes and property crimes, which Simpkins had highlighted.

"We're proud to report we had a decrease in property crimes. This is at a low, lowest since 2006," Simpkins said. "We made a pretty good dent in getting the bad guys out of town. But we still could use residents help to lock their cars and not keeping things (visibly) in their cars."

Simpkins said prevention is key in lowering this number.

"Education and prevention is making an impact," Simpkins told council. "The message here is locking (car doors) is making a difference but also don't keep things in plain view."

Burglaries, however, have gone up from 91 in 2010 to 102 in 2011, after three years of decline.

Rape

Robbery

Aggravated Assault

Violent Crime

Burglary

Larceny (Theft)

Stolen Vehicles

Property Crimes

2011

0

7

19

26

102

361

30

496

2010

2

10

20

32

91

406

34

534

2009

3

6

9

19

94

442

36

572

2008

1

5

20

26

115

426

21

567

2007

3

7

11

22

80

509

54

644

2006

5

12

15

33

105

458

32

597

Arson was omitted for space but there were three in 2011, and three in 2010.

Homicide was also omitted for space. Danville hasn't had a homicide in 2011 or 2010. There was on in 2009, 2007 and 2006.

Simpkins also highlighted the department's investigation unit, lead by Sgt. Allan Shields. Investigators handled 677 cases in 2011. This was a 23 percent increase from 550 cases in 2010.

These cases include burglary, robbery, assault, fraud, missing persons, among many others.

Despite the increase in cases, Simpkins said, the unit was able to close 341 of the 677, or a little more than 50 percent.

"Our message to the bad guys is not in our town," Simpkins said.

Traffic collisions up 21.8 percent

The report showed an increase in traffic collisions in Danville. Incidents increase from 183 to 223, or 21.8 percent, from 2010 to 2011. Simpkins said the department would be taking a targeted approach with these collisions moving forward. He told council the department would analyze these incidents for trends in factors and then deploy officers toward those factors.

Types of Collisions

2011

2010

Percentage Difference

Total Collisions

223

183

21.8

Fatal Collisions

2

1

100

Injury Collisions

48

57

-15.7

Vehicle vs. Pedestrian

4

6

-33.3

Vehicle vs. Bicycle

15

15

0

DUI Related

22

14

57.1

No shortage of calls, a lot of false alarms

The department handled 29,900 calls in 2011. These calls aren't all or are criminal in nature and divided into three categories.

• Priority one is an emergency call (armed robberies, burglary in progress, etc). The average response time for these calls was 5:42.
• Priority two is an urgent call (disturbance or non-injury traffic collisions). The average response time was 6:37.
• Priority three is for non-urgent calls involving incidents with no suspects (vandalism that happened the day before). Most of these calls are handled over the telephone.

Here is a breakdown of the top 10 calls for service in 2011:

Types of Calls

No. of Calls

False Alarms

2,115

Suspicious Circumstances

1,212

Disturbances

865

911 Hang-ups

819

Juvenile Disturbances

349

Civil Calls

346

Traffic Collisions

327

Suspicious Vehicle Stops

308

Suspicion Person Stops

237

Reckless Driving

228

Simpkins said false alarms continue to be the bulk of the department's calls. In September of last year a to help curb these calls. The new ordinance went into affect early this year. The department is still assessing the data on its early affect.

All data from Danville Police Department 2011 Annual Report.

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