MORGANTOWN POLICE DEPARTMENT
Annual Report 2000

PURPOSE AND GOALS

• Create and maintain a feeling of respect for and confidence in the Morgantown Police Department. This will result in citizens security so that they support and assist the Department in its efforts.
• Maximize the development and job satisfaction of Departmental employees. This will enable the Department to attract, retain, and secure the commitment of qualified personnel which are necessary to accomplish the Department's missions and goals.
• Ensure that the governing body of the City of Morgantown receives the greatest benefit for the dollars expended for police services.
• Minimize the occurrence of crime.
• Safeguard the lives, property, and public peace that the citizens and visitors of Morgantown are entitled to receive.
• Identify, arrest, and assist in the prosecution of persons who commit crimes.
• Recover lost and stolen property; identify its owner and ensure its prompt return; and provide safekeeping until such property is disposed of consistent with law or policy.
• Record and analyze crimes, accidents, and incident statistics on a continual basis for the purposes of legal record, improved planning, and crime control.
• Create and maintain a confidence in and support for the Morgantown Police Department on the part of other organizations with which it comes in contact -- particularly those agencies that are a part of the criminal justice system.
• Arrange for the delivery of emergency services that police are particularly equipped to provide.
• Assist citizens and visitors who cannot care for themselves or arrange for assistance.
• Facilitate the safe and orderly movement of people, traffic, and the parking of vehicles.

CURRENT PROGRAMS/SERVICES

The Morgantown Police Department's philosophy of policing is based on the concept that police officers and private citizens working together in creative ways can help solve contemporary, community problems related to crime; fear of crime; social and physical disorder; and neighborhood decay. The Police Department believes that these goals require the Department to continuously develop a new relationship with the law abiding people in the community allowing them a greater voice in setting local priorities for their neighborhoods. The Police Department is constantly changing the way it does policing:

Fulfill citizens expectations of a response time -- not the actual speed of response -- shapes citizens satisfaction with the police.

Call management plans, such as differential police response, can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of policing without sacrificing citizens safety.

Meaningful deployment of patrol officers maximizing service that can fluctuate according to season, time of day, and geographic location.

Unique patrol deployment schemes or specialized patrols.

Citizens' demands for police assistance and problem solving related to non-criminal matters.

This form of policing demands a level of trust beyond that of conventional policing and cannot be achieved where citizens doubt the integrity, sincerity or motive of the police. A major factor in the success or failure of any Community Policing program is the individual police officers. The Department is currently updating the evaluation system. The major goal is to train new supervisors and provide further training to all officers.

PATROL

Crime suppression or deterrence is primarily performed by uniformed patrol officers assigned to zones or foot patrols. Although it is impossible to measure how many crimes are actually deterred by visible officers on patrol, it can be assured that the number of officers in any one area certainly impacts crime. People do not commit crimes if they feel that they will be immediately arrested. Once again, in the coming year, the Police Department will be implementing more directed Downtown foot patrols as a step towards keeping the Downtown a safe area. Uniformed patrol officers are almost always "FIRST RESPONDERS" to any call for service, and it is the Department's desire to continue training officers to be as competent as financially possible when answering calls. Crime prevention has been routinely assigned to one officer, and it is the Department's desire that eventually all patrol officers are trained in the basics of crime prevention and community relations since they are the ones that have the routine contact with residents and business owners.

TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT

The Department's directed enforcement programs have been very successful. The Accident Reduction Targeting (A.R.T.) Program has reduced accidents by targeting high accident areas for speed and intersection violations. The Citizen Assisted Speed Enforcement (C.A.S.E.) Program has been another success. Contacting citizens that complain about speeders and other violators has permitted the Department to target the violators in question without having to expend large amounts of time attempting to blanket an area in order to solve the problem. Yearly a digital display will be used in neighborhoods to show motorists the speed they are traveling. The Department hopes to gain voluntary compliance in observing the posted speed limits throughout the neighborhoods.

CRIME PREVENTION/DARE

It is the Department's aim to expand the Crime Prevention Program into the community by teaching citizens how to be good witnesses, detect suspicious activity, and understand the criminal justice system.

The D.A.R.E. Program is the first long-term program against drug/alcohol abuse in the community and is clearly successful and will be continued.

This year Officer Joel Smith has taken D.A.R.E. instruction to a higher level in this community. He learned that a number of his pupils could not or speak very little of the English language. Knowing this was a potential problem, Officer Smith obtained workbooks in Spanish. At the present time Officer Smith is being tutored in the Spanish language. He is constantly being contacted by our Hispanic community as a direct result of his dedicated work in the classroom.

INVESTIGATIONS

In addition to the regular initiation or follow-up investigations that detectives are required to do, the Department has become deeply involved with the Drug Task Force and has 2 officers assigned full-time to this activity.

RESOURCES

The current operating budget of the Department for 2000-2001 is $3,336,083. $2,823,116 or 84% is personnel-related costs.

BUDGETED for

Sworn Personnel Breakdown

 

1 Chief	1 Captain/Assistant Chief
4 Lieutenants	4 Sergeants
5 Corporals	38 Patrol Officers

UNITS

2 Canine Officers	2 Traffic Officers
5 Detectives	1 Community Relations Officer
1 D.A.R.E. Officer	2 Drug Officers
1 Downtown Beat Officer	1 Trail Officer

Patrol Shifts begin at 0700, 1500, and 2300 hours daily, and shifts are permanent. Detectives and staff hours are 0800 to 1600 hours.

Overlap shifts and some assignment changes have been made according to the workload of the Department for various times of the year.

The Police Fleet Consists of

2 of the 11 marked cars are drug-related confiscated vehicles.

The Department is strongly grant oriented. Grants are obtained through the Governor's Office of Community and Industrial Development and the Department of Justice.

Currently the Department has been awarded one Block Grant, a Violent Crimes and Initiative Grant, and a Conflict Resolution Grant.

The Department is the only law enforcement agency in this area other than the State Police that has 1 sworn officer with the U.S. Marshals Service/D.E.A. who serve on the U.S. Attorney's Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force. All federal drug and organized crime investigations in this area involve City of Morgantown Officers.

Membership on the Drug Task Force permits the Department to obtain money and property through The Equitable Sharing Program, U.S. Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund. The Department has obtained vehicles and money from this involvement. It provides vehicles that are converted to Departmental use and vehicles to auction as well as an interest bearing checking account that can be spent to defray costs of investigations; provide additional training; buy related equipment; and to provide matching funds to obtain federal grants.

Crime prevention and involvement with the community are two areas actively pursued. The Department provides crime prevention and alcohol/drug education to both the neighborhoods and the university students. Officer Gina Panico works closely with Neighborhood Watch and other agencies in Community Crime Prevention.

For overtime work, the Department receives a reimbursement of $15,000 from the University for football and basketball games.

1998 - 2000 STAT COMPARISONS

MAJOR STATISTICS:

Incidents are calls for service and services performed by officers.

Graph of Police Incidents

Summary of Arrests

Graph of DUI arrests

Programs Implemented

As part of the Violent Crime Initiative Grant, four of the Department's officers will continue to teach Conflict Resolution to third graders. This helps students at an early age learn to solve their conflicts through a technique known as positive problem solving. The children learn that every one has feelings/opinions and that they must respect those even if they are different than their own. They also learn how to work out their problems through discussion instead of fighting.

To enhance the Department's training program, four officers have been certified as police instructors. The goal of this program is to train officers in-house. The benefit is officers will receive mandatory state training at a minimal cost plus numerous more hours of training in areas that meet this Police Department's needs. Training is always a major concern that impacts the Police Department on the kind of service the public receives.

To improve officers' safety, a Special Response Team (S.R.T.) has been formed. The Department recognizes that the presence of a highly trained, highly skilled police tactical unit has been shown to substantially reduce the risk of injury or loss of life to citizens, police officers, and suspects. A well managed team response to a critical incident usually results in a successful resolution. The intent of this Department is to provide a trained and skilled Special Response Team as a resource in handling critical incidents; apprehension of armed or potentially armed suspects; and the service of high risk warrants.

Officer Troy Ball is an instructor for the Batterers Intervention Prevention Program. The course lasts for 33 weeks. Class is comprised of men who have been accused or convicted of domestic violence crimes. This program is provided by a STOP grant that is administered by RDVIC.

The Police Department expanded the bicycle patrols not only in the neighborhoods, but to the recreational trail as well.

FORECAST FOR NEXT YEAR

The Rails to Trails completion has challenged the Department to police this area in innovative ways to protect citizens that have taken advantage of using this new form of recreation. The Department kept incidents to a minimum by placing officers full time on bicycles assigned only to the trail. This upcoming year one officer will be assigned to the trail year round.

Trash enforcement has become a major priority with the Department. A high proportion of the violators appear to be at student rental properties. Stronger efforts will be made to educate citizens especially in the problem areas. Along with the zone cars, two officers will be assigned on a part-time basis to trash enforcement in the student populated areas. Hopefully, with landlord assistance, public education, and stricter police enforcement this can become less of a problem.

SUMMARY

Self evaluation of the Morgantown Police Department has become a major challenge for this administration. We can measure how well the police Department is doing if we continue to progress. One of our most valuable tools is our evaluation system. The Department is now undertaking the first step in this process by defining the job of the Police Department in this community. This will deliver the tools to measure how well the Morgantown Police Department is progressing and making improvements through policy and training vital to its operations.