Friday, Nov. 09, 2012
Moody presents public safety performance measures
Property, youth crimes increase
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ReprintHarrisonville City Administrator Keith Moody highlighted two key areas in which he wants to see Harrisonville’s police officers improve upon during a Nov. 5 Board of Aldermen meeting.
In the second session of a three-part series, Moody presented the Police and Emergency Services portion of the 2011 Performance Measures.
According to Moody, reported violent and property crimes are above average. Juvenile arrests are also above average in Harrisonville.
The annual review of performance measures are presented to identify trends which may highlight the need for or benefit of a change and provide comparative data with neighboring cities, as well as cities around the country.
The data is provided by the ICMA, the International City/County Management Association, in which the city has been a part of since 2007.
While property and violent crime among youth accounted for about 27 percent of arrests in 2011, data points that the statistics are moving downward. In 2010, juvenile arrests were at 37.9 percent, and 29.6 percent in 2009, in Harrisonville.
Pleasant Hill’s juvenile arrests in 2011 accounted for about 37.9 percent, and Raymore’s percentage was less than half of a percent less than Harrisonville.
“The trend is going down,” Moody said. “As a rural community it’s not unusual, I don’t think, to have youth looking for ways to keep themselves entertained. Seeing this information helps us learn more about where we can concentrate on getting better.”
In terms of violent and property crimes per 1,000 residents, Harrisonville experienced just under 50 incidents, about 10 more than in 2010.
Moody said one of the factors driving the increase were 40 incidents of individuals not paying for their gas at a convenience store, but has since been resolved.
“We anticipate that this number will come down, and fully expect it to be below average,” he said.
Positive notes from the date indicated the Police Department is making strides in other areas of law enforcement protection.
Those indications include:
-Above-average staffing levels per capita, while at the same time having below average operating expenses per capita.
-Emergency response times are among the quickest in all of the cities included in the study.
-Percent of property and violent crimes cleared has moved to above average.
-Expenditures per violent and property crimes have consistently been below average.
-Violent and property crimes cleared per full time equivalent has moved to above average.
Moody also praised the efforts of Harrisonville’s EMS entity.
The compiled data displayed the following indications:
-Fire and EMS staff per 1,000 population is above average after adding staff in 2010. Staffing levels were influenced by the city’s high workload per capita as a result of serving as a regional ambulance service and transport service provider.
-Residential fires per 1,000 structures is very below average, an indication that fire prevention efforts, including education and building codes, are effective.
-EMS responses per full-time equivalent are among the highest indicating productivity by staff.
-Expenditures per fire/EMS incidents are below average, an indication that operations are being conducted in a frugal manner.
-Minutes from dispatch to arrival for EMS service has dropped from far above average in 2009, to well below average in 2010 and 2011, following the consolidation of the city’s fire and EMS staff.
-Percent of fire calls responded to in less than five minutes is well above average.
-Mutual aid received per 10,000 population is above average but trending down.
It is the short-term goal of the city to have 90 percent or more of the performance measures better than national averages by 2015.
Of the 16 performance measures discussed Nov. 5, 13 areas, or 81.25 percent, are better than the average.
In other business, the board took the following actions:
Recognized Lon Gile with a service award for 10 years of employment with the City of Harrisonville.
Held a public hearing to amending Chapter 420 of the Floodplain Management Regulations, regarding the methods used to analyze flood hazards in Harrisonville including the adoption of new Flood Insurance Rate Maps for Cass County. The BOA approved the ordinance.
Approved a resolution authorizing the City Administrator to execute an agreement between the city and Young’s Waterproofing and Construction for the purpose of providing contract labor for the 2012 Sidewalk and Curb Program in an amount not to exceed $69,607.
