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City of Elk River 2004 Annual Report One specific area of increased crime has been in the area of computer and Internet fraud. These cases ohen involve large losses, cross state and international boundary lines, and ohen offer little opportunity for closure or official charges. We also experienced a record number of auto thehs (55), mostly from car lots or sales establishments. Several metro area teams of suspects have been striking the outer ring suburbs hard, and although they have been caught numerous times, they are ohen released back to the streets by the courts to re-offend. Burglaries as well had an increase, and as we grow and our number of homes and businesses increases, so will these numbers of offenses. The good news is now that our population has exceeded 21,000, our crime rates are still very low in comparative terms to populated communities our size in direct relation to the number of serious crimes that take place per the number of their inhabitants. The largest increase in criminal activity has been in two specific areas, both of which have resulted in few leads, arrests, or case closure. The first is theh from vehicles. This is the single, most prevalent crime in our community, and it ohen results in felonious levels of property being taken. CD players, CD's, speakers, and cell phones are the most common targets. The second area targeted has been construction sites, with either construction equipment or tools being taken, or actual building supplies being stolen. Little physical evidence is being located at these crime scenes, we have had very few leads to follow-up on, and the property in all of these offenses is very difficult to trace. I believe that these specific, targeted offenses are what are driving our Part I and Part II crimes up to their current levels, while in turn directly reducing our clearance rates. Offense 2003 2004 Change Percent Burglary 96 109 13 +13.5% Larceny 560 665 105 +18.75% Auto Theft 27 55 28 +103% Forgery 51 92 41 +80.3% Having this information in hand, we know that serious crime will continue to rise as our population continues to grow. Our department goals for the coming years will be to develop community tools and resources to better equip and educate our residents to respond to the community policing needs of their neighborhoods. The Police Department is committed to keeping our crime rates low, and our community safe. 2004 HIGHLIGHTS · Purchased and placed into service a new police command post. · Completed installation and began operations in the new indoor police gun range. · Worked with IT staff to firm up network infrastructure and improve security from outside attacks. · Redeveloped structure for our web-based services including Citizen Observer and the Crime Alert Network. · Planned and participated in a large scale disaster training exercise that focused on an active shooting incident, and allowed multiple inter-agency response as well as inter- departmental response, EOC activation and performance evaluations. · Completed transition to scanned records storage-can now view all records electronically