Arrests up, offenses down in 2018 crime report

By CHANSE WATSON

Managing Editor

WALLACE — Local crime numbers are remaining largely consistent, according to the newest “Crime in Idaho” report for 2018.

Compiled by Idaho State Police, the yearly crime report allows the public to see what their local law enforcement agency was up to the previous year. While many of the statistics included could (and should) be taken with a grain of salt due to several different factors (depending on the category), most agencies agree that this report gives a good general idea of what they deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Regarding Shoshone County as a whole (meaning the combined statistics of the Kellogg Police Department, Pinehurst Police Department, Osburn Police Department and the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office), the number of total reported offenses is down from the previous year.

According to the report, local law enforcement received a total of 799 group “A” offense reports in 2018. This number is a slight decrease (6.55 percent) from the previous year when there were 855 reported “A” offenses in 2017.

While offense numbers were down though, the number of total arrests (adults and juveniles) was interestingly up from last year — clocking in at a combined 564 between Group “A” and “B” offenses. This total number is a whopping 22.34 percent increase over last year’s number of 461. The five-year average in Shoshone County (including 2018) is 557 arrests.

Group “A” offenses are made up of more than 30 different categories that include various violent, property, sexual and drug related crimes. In contrast, group “B” offenses include more general/minor crimes such as DUIs, runaways, disorderly conduct and trespassing. Due to the sheer number of “B” offense reports, only the number of arrests made as a result of those calls are included in the crime report.

The term “arrest” also encompasses the issuing of a citation for a misdemeanor level crime.

Compared to other counties in the state, Shoshone County sports the fourth-highest “A” offense crime rate per 100,000 in the population with 63.39. While this is still high, Shoshone did improve on its 2017 rate when it had the third-highest at 69.01 (down 8.14 percent).

The Idaho counties with higher 2018 “A” offense rates include Nez Perce (64.99), Bannock (75.09) and Clark (107.39).

The high crime rate does not suggest that more crimes occur in Shoshone County as compared to more populated counties (i.e. Kootenai and Ada), but it does give a good idea of how much crime goes on for a county its size.

In interviews with Shoshone County Sheriff Mike Gunderson, Undersheriff Holly Lindsey, Kellogg Police Chief Dave Wuolle and Osburn Police Chief Darell Braaten; all four stressed that not much has changed in terms of what law enforcement is seeing on the ground.

“We are still running into the same crimes that we have dealt with in the past five years,” Sheriff Gunderson said.

SCSO’s top five reported “A” offenses for 2018 back up this statement by the sheriff, as it’s exactly the same as it was in 2017. Leading the way is Larceny/Theft Offenses (122 reports), then coming in behind that is Simple Assault (90), Drug Equipment Violations (67), Drug/Narcotic Violations (61) and Destruction of Property (59).

Just like in the past, the group points out that many of these property related crimes (Larceny/Theft and Destruction of Property) can be attributed to substance abuse.

“This year is no different than every other year,” Gunderson said. “We’re still struggling with drug addiction, which can contribute to a lot of those theft or burglary crimes. When those types of crimes go to court, there’s a drug component to it almost every time.”

The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office is the largest locally based law enforcement agency operating in the area and as a result, it consistently accounts for the majority of the total reports and arrests in the county.

Falling in line with the total county trends, SCSO reported a 10.62 percent drop in reported offenses compared to 2017 (505 from 565), but did show a 26.38 percent increase in total arrests (412 from 326).

Gunderson said that these two seemingly contradictory statistics are the result of an increased emphasis on solving and clearing cases.

“We didn’t have as many crimes reported, but we were able to solve more crimes that were reported — so arrest numbers go up from there.”

The mid-2018 personnel additions of a detective (Det. Jeff Lee) and a drug detection K9 (Deputies Ben Abshire and Lulu) have also helped increase arrest numbers.

Undersheriff Lindsey points out that when an arrest is made during a case, it’s not always a 1-to-1 ratio.

“Initially, we might not be issuing a citation, which is an ‘arrest,’ maybe we are sending it over to the PA (prosecuting attorney). We won’t know, sometimes for months, if there’s going to be a summons or warrant issued for that case, which could lead to multiple arrests… If there’s multiple people arrested in that one case, then that would influence those numbers.”

Speaking of reporting numbers, another important factor to determine offense and arrest statistics is an agency’s case clearance rate.

As defined by the United States Department of Justice, “A law enforcement agency reports that an offense is cleared…when three specific conditions have been met. The three conditions are that at least one person has been: 1. Arrested, 2. Charged with the commissioner of the offense, and 3. Turned over to the court for prosecution.”

Arguably SCSO’s greatest crime report improvement was its 2018 clearance rate of 70.3 percent compared to 48.14 percent in 2017. A clearance rate of (or around) 50 percent is generally considered good or excellent.

Both Gunderson and Holly contribute this improvement to a new focus on reporting numbers to the state and setting up a system with the courthouse to better track the progress of cases.

Watching over the most populated city in Shoshone County, the Kellogg Police Department is the second largest local law enforcement agency in the area. As such, it makes sense that they would be handling the second-highest number of reports and making the second highest number of arrests.

The Kellogg Police Department saw an increase in both total reported offenses and arrests in 2018 (202 and 88) compared to 2017 (169 and 81). Staying consistent as well, their top five reported “A” offenses were once again Simple Assault (47), Larceny/Theft Offenses (41), Destruction of Property (30), Burglary/Breaking and Entering (15) and Drug/Narcotics Violations (14).

Simple assault has been KPD’s top reported offense for several years now. Wuolle contributes this partially to the city having a higher concentration of bars than the rest of the Silver Valley. Essentially, where alcohol flows, tempers are bound to flare up.

As for clearance rate, KPD continues to hover in the mid-30s at 33.66 percent — a very slight increase from 33 percent in 2017.

Wuolle stresses that this low clearance rate is the No. 1 item on the crime report that he wants to improve on, so much so that he plans to assign some officers to handle this administrative task.

“We need to get our guys trained on how to accurately fill out those reports,” he said.

KPD recently received funding to add an eighth officer to the service.

Tied for the smallest of the active local law enforcement agencies, the Osburn Police Department saw trends in their statistics similar to SCSO.

While 2018 reported offenses in Osburn were down ever so slightly from 77 in 2017 to 74 in 2018, the number of arrests have nearly doubled from 27 in 2017 to 48 in 2018.

Chief Braaten explained that this increase in arrests is tied to another positive statistic of theirs — a 70.27 percent clearance rate.

“We have taken a strong focus on our crime solving ability and transitioned to computer arts (an older reporting system),” Bratten said.

The transition to the new (but old) reporting system allows OPD to properly enter and clear reported offenses. This in turn yields more accurate and favorable arrests and clearance numbers.

OPD’s top five “A” offenses include Larceny/Theft Offenses (20), Simple Assault (17), Burglary/Breaking and Entering (7), Drug/Narcotics Violations (7) and Drug Equipment Violations (6). While all five of these offenses for 2018 made it on OPD’s 2017 list as well, simple assault jumped from fifth to second.

Larceny/Theft is commonly among the top reported in many agencies and usually involves “snatch-and-grab” situations.

“Those thefts we are experiencing are typically easy items that can be pawned or sold,” Bratten said.

In all, Bratten is pleased with his report numbers and is hoping to put a new emphasis on solving more assault cases.

The other small agency in Shoshone County is the Pinehurst Police Department. Headed-up by Chief Tami Holdahl, the department recently hired a second officer to get more police coverage.

Due to inconsistencies with the status of the agency and its staff over the past 3-4 years, crime report statistics for PPD have been and are incomplete.

Going back to 2016, PPD was sparsely staffed due to the declining health of longtime Chief Rocky Wilson. Mike Gunderson would temporarily take over as chief for a short time in late 2016 until he became sheriff and facilitated a contract with Pinehurst to take over law enforcement duties. From early 2017 to mid-2018, PPD was essentially absorbed by the Sheriff’s Office and manned by SCSO deputies (all of those stats going toward the Sheriff’s Office report totals).

It wasn’t until Holdahl was hired in late 2018 that PPD became its own entity with its own statistics once again.

Holdahl is looking forward to next year so that she can present the 2019 numbers to the public.

To see the full 2018 “Crime in Idaho” report, visit www.nibrs.isp.idaho.gov/CrimeInIdaho/Home/Index.