A math lesson for TRR

Nice of TRR to post their OPINIONS on how to run a police department when they have never worked a day in law enforcement themselves. How about we discuss some factual and accurate comparisons from someone who has?

"found that the crime in Rumford is not as high as he might otherwise lead you to believe as far as violent and property crimes are concerned."

Its a nice fantasy world when there are only two categories of crime. I guess there is no such thing in Rumford as harassment, stalking, internet crimes, child neglect, motor vehicle accidents, patrol requests, missing adults, runaway juveniles, possession of child pornography, attempted suicide, death and emergency notifications, illegal sale of alcohol, custodial interference, identity theft, traffic hazards, traffic control, making a false report, prostitution, lost property, etc. etc. etc.

Police departments provide a large amount of services that never make it in movies, television, or the front page of the paper. I guess TRR doesn't consider the victims of these crimes, and the people in need of these services as important. That's sad for someone who claims to be "for the citizens".

"Let’s talk about property crime for a minute. Property crime is one of those crimes where there usually isn’t a witness hence there usually isn’t anything the Rumford PD can do about it."

There is wonderful advancement in technology when it comes to law enforcement and some old school stuff that works wonders too. Lifting finger prints, shoe foot impressions in snow or dirt, tire track impressions are just a few. Heres a perfect example of hard police work that paid off:

http://homernews.com/stories/122308/news_1_002.shtml

"After doing some research and looking at the FBI Crime Index for Rumford, I found that in 2006, Rumford had a total of 8 violent crimes and a total of about 229 property crimes. If the crimes didn’t all occur on the same day, one man could take care of these incidents in a 365 day calendar year."

Lets do some math too. Lets see 229 property crimes, that requires time to investigate, write a report, process evidence, conduct interviews, track the offender down, make an arrest, file paperwork with the DA, court appearances and testimony. All of this while fielding other calls in one day. If I found an officer who could do that I'd pay top dollar for his salary. Of course these cases take time and are not as cut and dry as TRR would like you to believe. TRR might be okay with not getting quality service to insure that justice is served. Again its sad for someone who claims to be "for the citizens".

"I used Skowhegan as an example because Skowhegan is a mill town and actually has a larger population than we do (population 8,833) and we still have more police officers than they do and they have more violent and property crime according to the FBI Crime Index."

Did TRR conduct any research in the towns she used as an example to see if the citizens were happy with the quality of service provided? Did TRR contact the Skowhegan police department to see how overloaded they may be with case work? Did TRR research to see if the police department had a high turn over rate due to overall stress? Did TRR research how sucessful the police departments conviciton rate was due to proper staffing? Something TRR may want to look into when they claim to be providing accurate and factual reporting.

"If something drastic occurred while someone was at the furthest point in Rumford, they still have someone back in-town to deal with it and they could always call in Mexico, Dixfield, the Maine State Police, or the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department to assist."

I've suggested this in the past, and although I'm going to sound like a broken recorded, its all about liability. When you have one department that gets called out of its service area you have now just opened up the opportunity for a law suit. If that town is providing another town with backup and they recieve a call in their service area a couple of things can happen. Biggest problem is if the officer is tied up and unable to break the tax payer does not get the service that they are paying for. What does that mean? That means the citizen can sue the town. I've seen this happen and I've seen the town pay big money to settle out of court. I guess TRR doesn't really care about opening up other towns to getting sued.

"The square mileage argument is almost not even worth addressing. What does having an extra man have to do with square mileage? Another man is not going to help that person get to the location any quicker and there are only so many roads that go out of Rumford."

TRR asked a question so let me provide an answer. This goes back to understanding basic math. Lets visualize a pie chart. If you have one officer you can only offer one citizen a piece of that pie, everyone else goes hungry. If there are two to three officers a shift you can offer more citizens a piece of the pie, i.e service. The extra bonus to having proper staffing is with three officers on shift you can have one patroling Rumford point, one in Rumford Center and one in South Rumford that cuts the response time down considerably. I'd also like to ask, has TRR done a ride along yet to see how the Rumford Police Department operates. You can do ride alongs with other departmens but if you really want to be informed you or anyone interested should go down and try it for a night.

"The FBI crime statistics make sense with the make up of our community currently. Most of our citizenry are children under 14 and older adults over 55 of which not very many are statistically known for committing crimes. Twenty-two percent of our population is between the ages of 14 and 34 and this is the age group statistically known for being the largest offenders of crimes."

Lets step back and redo the math on this one. So Rumford has a large number of possible vicitms of crime. It only takes one person to commit multiple crimes, and statistically most offenders are not first time offenders. Look at the Sudsbury Inn murders as an example, one offender four victims. Look at property crimes, often someone breaking into a house will hit several in one night. So basically Rumford is a feeding frenzy for the 22 percent of the age group statistically known for being the largest offenders of crime. Also not taken into consideration is criminals from out of town looking for the perfect vicitm or area to hit. Again its sad TRR did not take the time to consider these facts when they claim to be "for the citizen".

"I used Skowhegan as an example because Skowhegan is a mill town and actually has a larger population than we do (population 8,833) and we still have more police officers than they do and they have more violent and property crime according to the FBI Crime Index."

Did TRR conduct any research in the towns she used as an example to see if the citizens were happy with the quality of service provided? Did TRR contact the Skowhegan police department to see how overloaded they may be with case work? Did TRR research to see if the police department had a high turn over rate due to overall stress? Did TRR research how sucessful the police departments conviciton rate was due to proper staffing? Something TRR may want to look into when they claim to be providing accurate and factual reporting.

TRR also failed to mention the State Police barracks right there in Skowhegan, or that the Somerset Sheriff's Office is about ten miles away in Madison. That seems like a fairly strong police presence to me.

911 asks:
"I'd also like to ask, has TRR done a ride along yet to see how the Rumford Police Department operates. You can do ride alongs with other departmens but if you really want to be informed you or anyone interested should go down and try it for a night."

lol......Somehow, I cannot picture this happening.

http://www.sunjournal.com/story/306551-3/RiverValley/Rumford_man_accused_of_making_death_threats/


"While investigating a 3:30 p.m. threatening complaint Thursday, Rumford police Detective James Bernard arrested Aaron Brasuell, 32, an hour later at a Falmouth Street home and charged him with two counts of
violating bail conditions, criminal mischief damage to a police cruiser, and possessing a suspended driver's license.

Bernard said Brasuell, who was ordered not to have contact with the witness or possess dangerous weapons, violated that by contacting the witness. A pat-down search also found he was carrying two knives and a homemade shank, which Bernard described as a screwdriver with the point ground down."

Nice job RPD! Amazing how dangerous that 22 percent can be.

FYI "criminal mischief damage to a police cruiser" means the guy was handcuffed put in back of the cruiser and then tried kicking the window out. I hope Officer Bernard didn't have to respond to that call by himself. Imagine entering a house and realizing the guy you are talking to has been hiding two dangerous weapons and is so dangerous he continues that behavior even when handcuffed.

The Rumford reporter is a Vile Vicious Vehicle being administered by a raving lunatic and is a Must to avoid.I find it absolutlely amazing that any credible organization of public interest group would pay any attention to the Editor of the Rumford Reporter. the publisher of TRR would be most at home living in the Sovite republic or in china.

Sorry, but Shangai's not such a bad place. you might wanna try it.

and, in case you didn't know,...there hasn't been a Soviet Republic for many years now.

Xmashen You are so accurate there has not been A Soviet Style Repulic for many years, However JSN has that crazy Fire in the Belly Look and to quote Gary Lewis & The Playboys she is a Must To Avoid

or i might wanna buy a diamond ring

and leave poor jen alone. I think she is suffering.

As Of late It occurred to me that as Life is gently rolling by Much of my Leisure Time has been spent reading and I was curious do we have any Serious Historical Readers out there. as an example I am currently reading four different Books and having a Whale of a Time./So perhaps others might like to drop in and tell us what their reading these days.

Francis-perhaps you would enjoy this thread...

https://rivervalleyfreepress.forumotion.com/river-valley-lounge-f4/book-list-t292.htm

you might want to post that under another category. this is "accountability". or you might want to check with Kismet. I am personally reading TRR and the Bible (sorta hard to tell the difference sometimes)

Thanks xmashen I will follow my nose

but be careful, sometimes you don't get to the stink til it's too late.

Ahhh, X, just like the good old days...we have totally digressed into insanity or is it inanity?

you say inane, i say insane... but hey, i love the game.

I would run for TM too, but i am thinking, is there enough in the budget for hair and makeup? If not, then I would do away with the PD and RFD entirely (oh, and also the DPW, except when i needed them to plow).

Okay, now I know who you are X, is your first name by chance Sarah?

no, and i do not have a husband who intimidates state troopers, nor do i have a child who didn't listen to my Abstinence speeches.

lol...

He doesn't intimidate them, he just falsely accuses them and uses his wifes position to get them fired, and Sarah didn't listen when that same speech was given to her because she was pregnant before the wedding ceremony.