Stolen Property Jumps 300% in February

Recently I began reading the monthly Police Department reports to the City Council. My attention was drawn to them by the monthly "initiatives" of the police department in January and February; i.e., the crackdown on traffic violations.

Each month the police chief prepares and submits a report to City Hall, and the report goes into the packet delivered to the computer of each City Councilperson and the Mayor. The packet arrives in the computers of the City Council in advance of the City Council meeting, so that each can familiarize himself/herself with the operations and problems of the various City departments.

These reports are also available to the public, but you have to go to City Hall or to the Woodstock Public Library to read them. At the Library go to the reference desk on the first floor, in the back.

After noting the monthly reports and the traffic reporting between May 2008 and January 2009, I was eager to see the February 2009 report and learn the results of the crackdown on certain traffic violations. I began watching for it in the packet for the second City Council meeting in March. Then for the first meeting in April. Then for the second meeting in April. I found the March monthly report in the April 21 packet, but where was the February report. So I waited for the May 5 meeting packet; still not there.

Today I emailed the City Manager to ask about it, and about 5:30PM the Executive Assistant to the City Manager emailed it to me and let me know it (the February report) will be included in the May 19 packet to the members of the City Council.

The traffic "initiatives" certainly paid or, should I say, the drivers are certainly paying off. From the drop in the number of tickets, I'd guess there was no "initiative" in March.

The figure I've been interested is in the "Other traffic arrests" category. This is the catch-all for all traffic arrests, other than DUI, Driving while suspended and Insurance violations. Everything else goes into "Other" (speeding, red light and stop sign violations, passing, seatbelts, etc.)
---------------------------January--February--March
"Other traffic arrests"--------362-----496-------360
Total traffic arrests-----------490-----596-------439

But a shocking figure appeared in the Stolen Property Value column. In February 2009 Woodstock residents and businesses lost $152,019 to thieves! Stolen Property Value jumped 124% from January to February.

Compare this to the average Stolen Property Value for the previous nine (9) months: $38,346. February's Stolen Property Value was 296% higher than the average of the previous nine months! In other words, almost four times as much property was stolen in February as the average of the previous nine months.

Perhaps the actual reported monthly numbers will help residents understand the activity of burglars and other thieves in Woodstock. For the past eleven (11) months, here are the numbers:

$58,724.00 May 2008
$38,379.00 June 2008
$45,583.00 July 2008
$17,551.00 August 2008
$36,908.00 September 2008
$30,194.00 October 2008
$28,341.00 November 2008
$24,413.00 December 2008
$65,021.00 January 2009
$152,019.00 February 2009
$7,585.00 March 2009

Keep in mind now how few Crime Reports from Woodstock you read in the local daily and weekly newspapers in Woodstock.

I guess, if I were on the City Council, I'd be asking what the (fill-in-the-blank) happened in January and February. Did one of the banks get hit for $90,000? Those were the months of two traffic "initiatives". Traffic tickets went up. Stolen property went up. Any correlation???

And didn't any member of the City Council notice that the February 2009 Police Department Report had not reached them?

How much of the "packet" do they read before the twice-monthly City Council meetings? If they don't read all of it, I can understand that; it's massive. But every department report should be read by at least one member of the City Council. Not that "one" should read all of them, but the Council should assure the public that all the reports have been read by the Council. Probably the only way to assure that is to assign Council members to City departments for report review.