Derby saw a sharp increase in narcotics arrests during 2011, according to statistics released by the department last week.
“It’s intentional,” Derby Police Chief Gerald Narowski said.
Police made 100 narcotics arrests in 2011 — a 69 percent increase over 2010, when 59 narcotics arrests were made.
Police made 76 narcotics arrests in 2009.
Narowski credited the increase to “aggressive enforcement.”
What’s that mean?
Derby police went at drugs in a number of ways in 2011 — whether it was visible patrols on the street or detectives taking time to build cases in order to obtain search or arrest warrants in drug-related crimes.
“Proactive investigations. You have to go out aggressively,” Narowski said. “It’s a combination of overt and covert investigations.”
Narowski said drugs are a “root cause” for a variety of crimes, such as robbery and assault.
If you’ve got drugs on the streets, chances are you’ll see people getting mugged as addicts try for money.
“Where there are drugs, there are guns. Where there are guns, there is violence,” the chief said.
“It can be underlying causes for many crimes, so we try to aggressively go after the drugs to minimize the other crimes. That’s what we’ve been concentrating a lot of resources on,” he said.
Derby saw eight fewer aggravated assaults in 2011 than in 2010 (10 in 2011; 18 in 2010).
Violence had been an issue in 2010 after several high-profile incidents.
Most of the other crime categories remained steady or saw small decreases.
“Aggravated assaults are down, almost 50 percent,” Narowski said. “Car thefts are down. Everything else fluctuates, going up and down.”
Crime stats are submitted to the state each year. Crime stats for major crimes are also submitted to the federal government.
The numbers tend to be moving targets because of the nature of law enforcement. A crime now reported as a motor vehicle theft can change later if the police determined the car in question was actually repossessed.
Narowski became police chief in October 2010. In 2011 he re-organized the department’s administration to get some more people on the street. A canine unit was also added to the department’s ranks in 2011.
In 2012, Narowski said he’ll probably ask for a few more police officers to help the cause. Currently there are 31 full-time officers, including the chief and deputy chief.
The department has been running up some relatively high overtime costs to get jobs done, Narowski said. Look for more information to come out once Derby’s budget season starts.
CALLS FOR SERVICE:
2009: 15,962
2010: 15,584
2011: 14,908
AGGRAVATED ASSAULTS
2009: 5
2010: 18
2011: 10
ASSAULTS:
2009: 55
2010: 64
2011: 67
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE:
2009: 60
2010: 72
2011: 44
ROBBERY:
2009: 14
2010: 13
2011: 13
SEXUAL ASSAULTS:
2009: 8
2010: 3
2011: 4
LARCENY:
2009: 307
2010: 295
2011: 284
BURGLARY:
2009: 90
2010: 75
2011: 69
AUTO THEFTS:
2009: 31
2010: 30
2011: 21
KIDNAPPING:
2009: 1
2010: 0
2011: 0
NARCOTICS ARRESTS:
2009: 76
2010: 59
2011: 100
MURDER:
2009: 1
2010: 0
2011: 0
MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS:
2009: 893
2010: 810
2011: 864
