Willard: Crime stats out
Manchester Police Nick Willard released some new crime stats, along with a statement to Girard at Large on Tuesday night. In the statement, Willard, who will be our special guest in the six o’clock hour of tomorrow’s show, said that crime had risen in five of the past seven years by a total of nineteen percent. He expects once the books are closed on last year, crime will have been up another three percent.
Predictive Police working
There is good news in the stats, though. Willard said the Hot Spot Predictive Policing methodology the department adopted is working. The city piloted the new program after investing forty thousand dollars in new software in late two thousand fourteen. The software uses crime stats to predict where and when crimes are likely to take place. The piloted areas saw crime decrease by eleven percent. After switching entirely to the new model last July, Willard says crime fell by four percent in the following six months. In the first quarter of this year, crime has declined by a whopping seventeen percent.
Willard didn’t give using the predictive policing model all the glory, however. Adding to the ranks was an important step, too. With twenty one vacancies due to retirement and resignation in the first half of last year, Willard moved money out of his salary line items to overtime to put more officers on the street. Recent hires have brought the department’s sworn compliment to two hundred thirty three officers, an all time high and four shy of the authorized compliment.
NH State Police: In on policing
Willard also invited the New Hampshire State Police to partner with the department during the predictive hot spot patrols. During the times the units were deployed, Willard said there was a thirty six percent decrease in crime. Operation Cyan, which began September 6th, netted one hundred twenty four arrests, two thousand eighteen motor vehicle stops and six hundred sixty motor vehicle summons. Additional specific operations were conducted throughout the year as well utilizing officer and detectives from all divisions, focusing on robberies, property crimes and theft from motor vehicles.
MPD: Announces Police Exam
On the heels of the crime stats’ release, the Manchester Police Department announced it will hold an entry-level police exam on Saturday, August 6th. The application deadline is Thursday, July 28th. More information and the application can be found at Manchester p d dot com. Interested applicants may contact Officer Carl Accorto at 7 9 2 5 4 5 2.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Foster: Bogus charities busted
N H Attorney General Joseph Foster announced that the Charitable Trusts Unit of the Department of Justice, along with the Federal Trade Commission and the other 49 states, obtained a permanent injunction to dissolve two nationwide sham cancer charities and ban their president, James Reynolds, Sr., from profiting from any charity fund raising in the future under a settlement filed in court yesterday. The two charities are Cancer Fund of America Inc. and Cancer Support Services Inc. Reynolds agreed to settle charges that the organizations claimed to help cancer patients, but instead spent the overwhelming majority of donations on their operators, families, friends, and fund raisers. Seventy five million dollars was taken in by these two sham charities.
Foster said the state has long pursued the Cancer Fund of America, stating the A G’s Office sued them in 1 9 9 1, obtaining a consent decree by which they agreed to reimburse N H residents who had contributed.
Anyone who has any questions about a charity can and should check the A G’s Web site at Charitable Trusts Unit at d o j dot n h dot gov slash charitable dash trusts or call 2 7 1 3 5 9 1. More information on the settlement order can be found at f t c dot gov. We’ve linked to it.
Soucy: Finalist
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has selected Manchester as a finalist for the fourth annual Culture of Health Prize. The city was one of fifteen finalists selected out two hundred cities. Manchester Public Health Director Tim Soucy, who discussed the announcement in his bi-weekly interview on the Girard at Large Radio Show yesterday morning, said being chosen as a finalist quote
validates the collective efforts by the community to realize the recommendations prescribed in our Neighborhood Health Improvement Strategy.
If Manchester wins, the it will receive a twenty-five thousand dollar cash prize and an opportunity to share their story and lessons learned with the nation.
Chairman Leslie Want: Public input requested
The Manchester Board of School Committee’s Special Committee on Redistricting will hold its inaugural meeting tonight at five thirty in the Aldermanic Chambers at City Hall. Public input is welcomed as the committee will be determining goals and time lines for the necessary work.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is next.
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