The crime rate in Wrightsville Beach dropped again this quarter, Police Chief Daniel House announced Thursday Oct.23 during his quarterly Chat with the Chief.
And while the news is good, House said that it will invariably mean a rise in crime again at some point in the future.
“When it goes back up, it’s going to be ugly,” he said. House also reported a drop in crime statistics in August.
The town saw drops in both Part 1 crimes, which include more serious offenses like robberies, sexual assaults, burglaries and theft, and Part 2 crimes, covering simple assaults, stolen property, vandalism, DWI and drug charges. Crime in both categories dropped 28 percent from the same July – September period in 2014.
This included a drop in DWIs and a sharp increase in simple assault charges, which House said stemmed from the bar scene in Wrightsville Beach’s central business district.
“This past summer there seemed to be fight after fight downtown,” he said.
There was a drop in enforcement of town ordinances, House said, though he added that the drop was less than expected, given that the police department was understaffed throughout most of the summer. Compared to 482 town ordinance citations during the July-September period in 2014, there were just 404 during the same period this year.
“I was really expecting it to be about half,” House said. Unlike the Part 1 and Part 2 crimes which are mostly reported to police, town ordinance enforcement generally requires proactive enforcement from officers.
One town ordinance where police focused their efforts was human waste violations, catching suspects either urinating or defecating in public areas. Those citations rose from 40 to 107 in this year’s quarterly period, he said.
House also addressed the number of vacancies in the police force that affected enforcement over the summer. He said he forecasted the problem to the board of aldermen in March, noting that while the force averaged 3-4 vacancies a year, there would likely be more in 2015 as several officers were looking to take their law enforcement careers in different directions.
However, of the eight vacancies, at least five officers were hired in the past few weeks, and two have already started training, House said. Another officer is expected to finish the hiring process soon, he said. This candidate has already been on a ride-along with police.
Hiring new officers is a long process, House told the handful of residents that attended the chat.
“There can be a tendency to look at whoever comes through the door, but we didn’t do that,” House said.
By summer 2016, the police department is expected to be fully staffed, House said.
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