Officials Hear OC Summer Crime Report

OCEAN CITY - A brief crime analysis of the 2007 summer season was given at a Police Commission meeting last week, with the conclusions the numbers were as expected.

Ocean City Police Chief Bernadette DiPino and Corporal Glen McIntyre, who will be acting as a crime analyst for the department, made the presentation to the Police Commission at last Thursday's meeting.

'Our numbers run concurrent with the population,' McIntyre said.

According to the figures, the calls for service saw an increase this year, with 43,301 calls for service compared to 35,290 calls for service in 2006 and 2005 resulted in 36,336 calls for service. In the north district, which includes the areas north of 18^th Street, there were 26,042 calls for service with 17,259 calls for service in the south district. McIntyre explained that the north district warrants more calls for service due to the larger area it covers and the inevitable traffic calls that result from that area.

McIntyre pointed out that the crime analysis provides the department with the ability to better track calls for transportation. It also provides a more detailed look at business checks done throughout the summer, showing the exact times and dates that business checks were performed.

'Although calls for service look like they are up, they're not really up,' DiPino said, explaining that the new computer system allows them to capture more calls for service and include them in the data. 'We don't feel like we have more than we did in past summers.'

McIntyre pointed out the department saw a decrease in citizen calls for service.

'That means we're getting it before the citizen has to call us and notify us about it,' DiPino said.

McIntyre added that 66.3 percent of calls for service were officer initiated.

Frequent offenses were analyzed as well, with 12 offenses, ranging from assault to theft, included in the analysis. The data revealed 641 assault offenses for 2007 compared to 550 in 2006. McIntyre pointed out increases in offenses seen in 2007 were due to an increased population, a result of favorable weather.

The disorderly conduct offenses were up from 3,648 last year to 3,814 in 2007. McIntyre pointed out that those numbers were consistent with the four-year average of 3,866 disorderly offenses.

The analysis showed that there were 2,536 arrests this summer season, with more than 170 arrests related to open container offenses. McIntyre showed the demographics of offenders were as expected, with adult males making up 70 percent of arrests and juveniles, 17 and under, making up 16.8 percent of arrests.

'Things went well [this summer] and the numbers were right were we expected them to be,' McIntyre said.

DiPino added, 'The system does help us and it does help to have someone break it down for us to see.'