Crime report gives MLPD passing marks

UCR brings good news, questions, to local police departments

The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police has released 2003 crime statistics to police departments throughout the area, and while the results are mostly positive, there are several voices questioning the accuracy of the reports.

Dean Mitchell, assistant chief of the Moses Lake Police Department, said that when the FBI delivers the Uniform Crime Report, using statistics the WASPC has gathered from each police department, the MLPD has to be careful "not to put too much stock" into the report's statistics.

"It goes up one year and then it goes down the next," he said.

Joe Varick, chief of the Ephrata Police Department said the results of the UCR for his institution were consistent, despite the reporting of a number of what he termed "high-profile" cases hitting Ephrata during 2003.

Mitchell said the department was pleased with the results, which show a drop in most areas of crime, the most substantial of which were a 33 percent decrease on violent crime and an 8 percent drop in property crimes.

Other figures included a 53.8 percent drop on aggravated assault, a 47.8 percent dive on motor vehicle theft, a 4.3 percent decrease in the number of forcible rapes, a 10.5 percent drop on robberies and a 6.5 percent increase on burglaries. Despite these mostly favorable figures, Mitchell reiterated the need to not read much into the UCR, given what he saw as the report's shortcomings.

Mitchell said one of the main flaws of the UCR is that while it provides statistical information, it does not take into account factors such as social trends and the shape of the local economy, all variables which he said affect crime rates.

"There has got to be a way to measure how effective (police departments) are," he said. "I don't know if this is an accurate way to do that."

Varick agreed, saying such an assessment was "probably accurate," and that one of the reasons for that is the fact that the UCR presents incident-based reports, having more to do with the number of them than with actual crime decisions or charges.

Another shortcoming of the system, Mitchell said, is the tendency to compare statistics among cities of similar size, which goes in detriment of Moses Lake, given that the MLPD serves a larger area than what the city limits are.

Mitchell said he did not think the UCRs were effective, given the fact that they pay no recognition to statistics concerning drug busts and arrests. Conversely, he said that the results of drug busts and arrests can indeed be seen in the number of violent crimes and property crimes.

Varick said the UCR was "a pretty good system," but which depended greatly on police departments to maintain accurate statistics and reporting them to the WASPC.

"If a department feels like they want to participate, it's important they provide good records," Varick said. "A UCR is as accurate as each individual department can keep its statistics."

Mitchell highlighted the patrolling efforts and the community involvement as ways of keeping cities such as Moses Lake safe and the numbers on the annual UCRs down.

"People who don't think it is important to call us are doing a disfavor to the community," he said. "The more eyes and ears we have out there, the better we will be able to follow up on the incidents reported."