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Arlington Hts. police say crime dropped significantly in 2009

Arlington Heights reported a reduction in crimes in 2009 as well as fewer fire and ambulance calls, the police and fire chiefs reported to the village board at a recent budget review session.

Crime in the village is at an all-time low, Police Chief Gerald Mourning told the village board Wednesday.

He attributed the drop in crime to several things - from the demographics of the village to a national downturn in crime rates. Mourning said the department also targeted several areas for special attention. One of them, burglaries from vehicles, resulted in 30 arrests in 14 months, he said.

From 2008 to 2009, the Arlington Heights overall crime rate dropped 26 percent, he said.

Nationally, the average crime rate for municipalities with populations from 50,000 to 99,000 in 2009 was 4,002 per 100,000 residents. In Arlington Heights the rate was 1,735 per 100,000, a historic low, Mourning said.

In 1975 the rate reached a peak of 4,381 per 100,000. Arlington Heights has about 77,000 people.

Other statistics Mourning reported are:

Serious crimes: 1,342 in 2009; 1,808 in 2008.

Other crimes: 3,208 in 2009; 3,385 in 2008.

DUI arrests: 228 in 2009; 238 in 2009

Traffic and parking tickets: 29,433 in 2009; 33,018 in 2008

Arrests: 1,381 in 2009; 1,475 in 2008

Traffic accidents: 2,535 in 2009; 2,974 in 2008 (but 303 injury accidents in 2009 is higher than the year before).

Fire Chief Glenn Ericksen said fire calls were down in 2009 from the year before, but could identify why.

The department had 104 fire calls in 2009, down from 120 in 2008, and 6,312 emergency medical service calls, down from 6,588. The total calls, including 1,169 false alarms reached 9,516 in 2009, down from 9,984 in 2008.

Ericksen said he thought his department was at optimal staffing when it got a grant three years ago to add nine firefighters. The budget for the year that starts May 1 cuts that number by three positions through attrition.

"We need to find ways to overcome that," he said, "and make changes in how we respond to certain calls."

The fire department received aid from nearby fire departments 343 times in 2009 - more times than it gave assistance and will work to balance the calls, said Ericksen. He thinks much of this is due to a rather new automatic aid agreement with Palatine.

Mourning plans to add a third dog to the K-9 unit, which would mean all three shifts will have their own Belgian Malinois and handler. Startup costs are $25,000 for a trained dog.

Trustee Thomas Glasgow said he believes the force's dogs have contributed to the decline in crime.

"The dogs have saved officers' lives; it's a wonderful program," he said.

Mourning said the department's two dogs were involved in 16 arrests and seven seizures of cannabis and other controlled substances in 2009. They also were involved in many searches, including 102 of vehicles and 20 of buildings.

He also said the department has started using Tasers. In 2008, officer injuries accounted for the equivalent of eight officers being off a year, he said. That number dropped in 2009, and he said that even threatening to use Tasers has a deterrent effect.

Preventing injuries to officers helped offset the loss in positions due to budget problems, as did the drop in crime.

In the last two years the department has lost 10 positions, half civilian and half sworn, including three civilian layoffs. When economic times get better he intends to ask for those positions back, he told trustees.