Beaumont Enterprise - New age for BPD crime-solving

New age for BPD crime-solving

By: Dee Dixon – 04/10/2006

(EXCERPT)

BEAUMONT - Stifled by outdated software, the Beaumont Police Department is relying on improvements in reporting technology to curb violent crimes, improve personnel efficiency and respond more quickly.

Aggravated assaults are a particular problem, according to a report obtained from the Beaumont Police Department Friday that compares January and February of 2005 and 2006. Addressing the attacks is a difficult task because most of them involve acquaintances who get upset with each other and lash out, Assistant Chief Weldon Dunlap said. "That has a lot to do with factors we don't have any control of," Police Chief Frank C. Coffin said.

Two months into his new job, Coffin said the focus of the department now is to be proactive about fighting crime by improving technology and efficiency.

The department is using software that is 13 years old. It makes it difficult to plot crimes and sometimes reports inaccurate results because crimes aren't always reported appropriately. This summer, the department expects to get COMSTAT, a computer program that can generate daily reports of where crimes have occurred. Coffin said with these reports, officers will be better able to respond to crimes because instead of waiting for a call on a scanner, they can see where clusters are occurring and anticipate problems.

A comparison of year-end statistics released earlier this week for 2004 and 2005 showed a slight drop in overall crime in 2005. However, violent crime increased in every major category except theft, according to those totals. Because of a 33 percent increase in aggravated assaults reflected in the monthly comparisons - from 97 to 129 - the city's violent crime rate increased 6 percent using those statistics. However, murder, rape and robbery all declined in those two months. Rapes dropped from 21 to seven, a 67 percent decrease. Murders dropped from four to one, a 75 percent decrease. Robbery dropped from 50 to 45, a 10 percent decrease.

"We're moving into the 21st century, finally," Capt. Melissa Ownby said.

In another move forward, the department last month used a 30-day trial of l.e.a.d.s online, which is a nationwide Web site where second-hand stores and pawn shops can upload items daily to find out if something has been reported stolen. Under the old method, which still is in use at the department, pawn tickets have to be entered into a computer manually by police employees. A clerk can enter up to 9,000 tickets a month. With the newer approach, police have been able to use the site to investigate property crimes, drugs and homicides.

In the first nine days of using the software, the department recovered $2,000 worth of stolen merchandise in a case that a detective was getting ready to close because all leads were exhausted, Ownby said. Police also got a hit in another case Friday, and the software seems to be in town to stay. Ownby said scrap metal yard owners also have expressed an interest in participating. Already two of the city's seven pawn shops are uploading the information to the site, which is free for business owners. The police department pays for the service.

(L.E.A.D.S.ONLINE CLIENT – BEAUMONT, TX POLICE DEPARTMENT)