Recently, the Whitewater Register ran a three-part series on the Whitewater Police Department.
I know of no occasion when they’ve run a series like this. The series offers no explain for its length or timing. The three-part series did begin three weeks prior to the visit of a group that provides accreditation to local police departments. I’ll leave it to others to decide if the timing is more than coincidence.
I am unconcerned about the timing, for two reasons. First, accreditation matters not at all against the actual leadership of a department. Accreditation may not reflect good leadership, and good leadership may not seek accreditation.
Second, any series in the Register, no matter how slanted it might be, amounts to preaching to the choir. That fraction of the Register’s readership that considers the Register a good newspaper would be inclined to support its biases in any event.
There are three articles in the series. I’ll cover all three now that the series is done. First up, Part 1. Part one of the police series is entitled “Report: Crime Spikes 10 Percent in 2007.”
It’s a challenge when crimes increase in a small town, but it’s most important to know why. As a newspaper story, Dampier’s story on a spike in crime shows all that’s wrong with the Register.
- Dampier quotes only one person, Chief Coan. Where’s an independent analyst’s perspective on our increase in crime? Our university would have a number of qualified faculty who could offer an opinion. Dampier doesn’t bother to find one.
- Tenuous assertions.
- Traffic tickets and traffic safety.
- Violent Crimes and Alcohol.
- Liquor Law Violations.
The story contends that a 10% increase in crime in Whitewater may be attributed to a rash of burglaries in the fall. Dampier never follow up with obvious lines of inquiry:
(1) With hundreds of different offenses committed in Whitewater each year, why would the burglaries alone lead to a 10% jump in crime? In the story, Coan says that the burglaries led to a spike in property crime, and Dampier concludes — I’m not sure if Coan agrees — that accounts for the 10% increase in overall crime. It’s very sloppy writing.
(2) Why did the burglaries go on for so long, and what changes are being made to prevent similar occurrences?
Whitewater officers write a lot of speeding tickets — there were nearly 800 traffic citations of all types in 2007.
Dampier never asks the obvious questions:
(1) When Coan contends that the tickets are to address traffic safety issues, how often is safety really involved? My point is not that speeding is unimportant, but I’m not sure how important it is. Does speeding always lead to a true safety threat? No, of course not. How often does Coan think it’s a problem?
(2) Has the number of speeding offenses decreased? If not, why is there no deterrent effect? If there is no effect, how is safety — such as claimed — advanced?
(3) How much are all those tickets worth to the city? What portion of city revenue do they constitute?
Dampier writes that there were 26 cases of simple assault, with 24 leading to an arrest. She quotes Chief Coan as remarking that most of these cases involved alcohol. I’m sure they did, but why no follow up?
(1) Were those involved legally intoxicated?
(2) Does Coan think that alcohol caused these assaults? If yes, would he advocate greater restrictions on alcohol? If not, why bother to mention alcohol consumption?
Dampier reports that there were 591 arrests for liquor law violations. The questions that the story misses:
(1) How many of these were violent offenders? (Apparently, based on other statistics, few.)
(2) How many of these violations were for underage drinking?
(3) What was the average fine charged? How much revenue does this provide to the City of Whitewater. (Quick answer: it’s likely more than a cottage industry.)
Next: Part 2 of the Register series, “A Diverse Community Presents Challenges.”
UPDATE 6:16 P.M.: The burglaries in the fall seem to have happened around a discrete time, preceded by other crimes earlier in the year. No one should think that they somehow happened each night during the fall. Their reputed impact on the overall crime rate is surprising, in any event.