Administrator/Public Safety Report - January 12, 2016

by Village Administrator/Public Safety Director JW Fairman

UCR-Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics (Update)

•  A review of Sauk Village crime from 2012 through 2014 showed that Sauk Village was among the highest crime rated communities in Illinois. That information was sourced by the UCR report(s) submitted to Illinois State Police (ISP) by the Sauk Village Police Department during the above mentioned years.

• The UCR has eight major crime categories: Murder, Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Theft, Motor Vehicle Theft and Arson. These categories and their sub categories have been historically entered into the  "New  World Case Reporting System (NWCRS) {Currently they are now entered into the "Capers Case Reporting System'} At year-end a computer UCR report is generated for reporting purposes to ISP. That report determines Sauk Village's crime information and its' crime ranking in Illinois.

• Chief Kowalski reviewed the 2014 NWCRS year-end report and found that it differed from the UCR report that was submitted to ISP earlier last year.  The UCR report that was sent to ISP showed that overall crime in Sauk Village was 38% higher than what the year-end NWCRS reported. An adjusted UCR report for 2014 was filed with the ISP based on the information collected by NWCRS in 2014 {ISP only allows only one year to be adjusted).

• Crime reporting can be influenced in several ways; by mis-categorizing a crime on initial entry or by over or under reporting the UCR figures that are reported to the ISP.

• For the first 8 months of 2015 prior to Chief Kowalski's arrival major UCR crime reports averaged 22.9 crimes per month (it should be noted that NWCRS was not always operational during that period and that reporting was tabulated, at times, manually}. For the four months after Chief Kowalski's arrival major UCR crime averaged 10 crimes per month.

• Total major UCR crime for the years 2012 through 2014 (non-adjusted) averaged per month; 58.4, 53.1, 46.2 respectively. Total major UCR crime for the years 2014 (adjusted) through 2015 averaged per month; 28.6 and 18.6  respectively.

  

Why is UCR reporting important to Sauk Village?

 •   Commerce and the public view UCR information as factual. Opinions are formulated about the Village as to its strength and weaknesses.

•   Past crime reporting, real or contrived, has labeled Sauk Village as anything but an average community with average crime.

•   The corrected UCR findings for 2014 and the UCR figures for 2015 should remove Sauk Village from the list of Illinois worst crime   communities.

•   The 2014 (adjusted) and 2015 UCR ISP reports will begin to demonstrate that Sauk Village is a community to live and raise a family and afford the Village an opportunity to be competitive with its neighbors on a business basis.

  

Update  on  Blueprint  Partners  Project-BPP I Vacant  Housing I Contract Components

•   Staff has combined four independent vacant housing lists into one master list. Former lists varied from as high 707 vacant houses to under 400 vacant homes.

•   Our new master list, to date, shows 462 vacant homes* in two categories: 

o  Vacant - 374 houses

o  Vacant/Occupied -  88 houses

   

Staff is placing green "Vacant" stickers on identified vacant housing (in accordance with the Village s agreement with Cook County). The community is responding positively and is informing staff of occurrences at housing units where the stickers were placed. Some property owners who have been stickered are now establishing water accounts and obtaining occupancy permits. When squatters are identified the information is turn over to SVPD.

  

•   The master list will ultimately identify vacant property that is in arrears to the Village and in time, will identify other pertinent information that can be used to expedite water and other public work services as well as identify crime patterns that relate to vacant property.

•   However, needed legislation that has been submitted to the Board to assist staff in their efforts to control related vacancy issues has not yet been brought up for consideration. It is staff's position that this legislation should be moved forward as soon as possible.

•   Staff is also in the process of reviewing Village contracts to ascertain if the Village is receiving acceptable services from its venders. Scavenger and Towing contracts will top the list.

•   Within the next several months the Housing Commission will be in the process of removing six (6) additional vacant residential units.

*NOTE: For the purposes of this report vacant demolitions that will be occurring in the next several months are not factored.