Crime is down this year in the town of Coupeville and yet calls to the police are skyrocketing, an apparent paradox that makes perfect sense to Marshal Lenny Marlborough.
“A lot of it is that people are calling in things prior to a crime occurring,” Marlborough said Tuesday. “Our presence in those incidents is what’s going to cause the crime to go down.”
The numbers are telling. Comparing this year with last, traffic infractions are down from 152 to 53 and investigative cases are down from 215 to 153. Traffic citations are also down by about 50 percent from this time last year.
Marlborough attributed the heightened number of calls to the police (about 130 a month, he said) partly to the ongoing search for the suspect who broke into a number of homes earlier in the summer, also reportedly kidnapping a Coupeville resident for a momentary ride around town. Folks have called in a number of sightings, Marlborough said, every one of which the police have checked out. The suspect has not been found.
“The past couple of months have been extremely busy for us,” he said. “Our suspicious person calls have gone through the roof. We’ve been chasing down a lot of those calls.”
Marlborough pointed out that in a few areas of concern, the town’s police force is actually “ahead of schedule” from last year. For instance, in all of 2001, there were only 6 vehicles reported stolen; this year so far, there have already been 9 such incidents. (For comparison, only 3 stolen vehicles were reported in 2000). When asked the reason for such an increase, the marshall is quick with a response: “Keys in the car.”
Marlborough said that all the stolen cars have been recovered. He said much of the time, auto theft in Coupeville is a matter of someone “joyriding,” or taking the car for a spin and abandoning it somewhere nearby.
Malicious mischief cases also are up a bit this year, Marlborough said, with 23 already reported. Many of these are related to domestic violence cases, though he pointed out that domestic violence calls themselves are down a bit. However, Marlborough added, “we’ve got several this month already.”
Fraud cases, such as credit card theft, are up, with 6 already this year compared to 4 for all of 2001. This presents a good deal of case work for the Coupeville force. “That kind of stuff is inherently time-consuming,” Marlborough said.
In all, Marlborough attributed the general decrease in crime to the vigilance of the Coupeville community, coupled with the hard work of the police force.
“It’s the willingness of the community to call in suspicious things that allows us to get there early enough to do something about it,” he said. “Without the assistance of the community, the police just become record keepers.”
Marlborough’s verdict: “Coupeville’s still a safe place to live.”
