Windsor Locks Police Chief: Crime Stats Accurate, Telling

As taxpayers and town officials wrestle with the reality of a proposed 5-percent increase in the coming fiscal year’s municipal budget, some of the departments asking for the most significant increases are taking some flak.

One in particular is the police department. The Police Commission has requested an 18-percent increase in funding for 2013-14 and some members of the public have been quick to suggest that the request is based on inflated numbers and exaggerated crime statistics reporting.

When commission members presented the department’s budget to town finance officials in February, they said that additional $500,000 would help “reverse what the town has become and guide the town to what it once was — a safe community to live and raise families in.”

Not true, according to some, including a recently retired town police sergeant.
Earlier this month, retired Windsor Locks Police Sgt. Rick Rachele called the police commission dishonest and questioned arrest data, saying that reporting practices have changed under Chief Eric Osanitsch, who was sworn in as department head last year.

As an example, Rachele said that recent data shows that drug-related arrests nearly doubled from 2011 to 2012. Rachel said that many of those arrests would have only been infractions, not arrests, prior to Osanitsch’s hiring.   Osanitsch disagrees. Last week, the chief said that there have been no changes to reporting practices, and the rise in arrest numbers can be attributed to police efforts to make certain crimes a priority.

“If traffic enforcement wasn’t a priority and then it becomes a priority, the numbers go up,” Osanitsch said last week by phone.

The department created a special crime suppression unit charged with increasing department activity over a one-month period.  During that month, nearly half of all 2012 drug arrests were made, according to department data.

While the department touts such activity as a success, it’s unsustainable under current funding levels, according to the chief.

“Currently, our funding and manpower does not allow for that proactive police work,” Osantisch said.

The 18-percent increase in funding to police efforts will enable the department to establish a permanent crime-suppression unit and will help increase patrols in town, according to department documents.

“For the longest time, the police department has been basic-service oriented. We’ve been behind the times,” Osantisch said.

View the attached document for crime statistics provided by the Windsor Locks Police Department.