They patrol streets for speeders. Drive neighborhoods in search of suspicious activity. Help residents in need of assistance. Deal with overly intoxicated hoodlums. And investigate felonies.
Police respond to a variety of calls, especially in small towns: They may deal with a hostage situation one hour and help a lost child the next.
Behind the scenes, dispatchers answer tens of thousands of calls per year – many on the 911 emergency dispatch service – and log those calls into an official record.
Those calls, looked at over time, begin to tell a story of the community. It’s not a perfect picture, but it’s a representation of where police activity occurs, when it occurs, what it looks like and how police respond.
The Durango Herald compiled five years’ worth of incidents – about 190,000 calls – recorded by dispatch and handled by the Durango Police Department. In doing so, we learned:
Where drivers are most likely to be stopped.How often police write tickets.How frequently people call 911 for no good reason.And whether full moons cause spikes in criminal behavior.The Durango Police Department wants to hire a part-time crime analyst this year to study this type of data to determine where to place resources, said Cmdr. Ray Shupe, spokesman for the agency. Doing so will allow the department to move from a “reactive” police force to a “predictive” one, he said.
In the meantime, officers rely on their experience, common sense and old-fashioned police work to make smart decisions.
Shupe said he’s not sure if full moons play a role in criminal behavior, but he’s pretty sure holidays and warm temperatures do.
Susanne Meyers, operations supervisor at the dispatch center, concurred.
“Everything relates back to alcohol,” she said. “That could be anything from DUIs to disturbances in the bars. As it gets warmer outside, the tourists come, people get outside more, the drinking increases, the population increases, our call load increases.”
Dispatchers, like police, must be prepared to deal with a variety of calls, from difficult to amusing. It’s the type of job that everyone wants to know more about at parties and holiday gatherings, Meyers said.
“Everybody has their different stories as to their toughest call, which is usually involving a child, to their craziest calls, which are usually dealing with calling 911 for raccoons or calling to complain about service at a store – different things that are really not a 911 situation,” she said.
Many calls to dispatch come from people who are intoxicated. She recalled one person who called 911 to report he was being held hostage. When dispatchers asked where he was located, he said, “I’m in the back of a cop car.”
“His perception of being held hostage was a little different than being held in custody,” Meyers said.
Here’s what we learned looking at five years worth of incidents logged by dispatchers for the Durango Police Department:
During the past five years, the Durango Police Department made about 38,200 traffic stops, not including drunken driving offenses. Of those, officers issued 11,293 citations and 25,084 oral or written warnings – which means drivers were 69 percent more likely to receive a warning than a citation.
Pretty good odds.
“We leave it up to officer discretion,” said Shupe. “If an officer feels that a verbal warning is going to get somebody to pay attention and slow down, that’s what they do. We don’t have any type of quota system or anything.”
The objective is to reduce crashes and improve public safety, he said.
“We kind of have a no-tolerance policy on speed in the school zones,” Shupe said. “Typically, if you get stopped in a school zone, you’re going to get a citation.”
But what of the remaining 1,835 traffic stops? Police made more than 500 arrests during traffic stops, possibly for outstanding warrants, while others were disposed of in miscellaneous categories.
Identifying exactly where drivers are most likely to be stopped can be tricky, since dispatchers can enter various addresses for any given area. For example, dispatchers could list a business address or a block number depending on how it is called in. Also, police provide dispatchers with addresses of where vehicles are stopped, not necessarily where drivers were observed breaking the law. So drivers who are clocked speeding in one location can be followed for a half mile or more before police initiate a traffic stop.
But among the 38,212 traffic stops logged by dispatch during the five years, certain trends emerge.
Here are a few placing drivers may want to slow it down:
The two-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 160, between the DoubleTree Hotel intersection and Wildcat Canyon (County Road 141), where police made at least 2,850 of the traffic stops. “It’s a 45 mph, and for some reason everyone wants to go 60 mph,” said Officer Dave Smith.The half-mile stretch of road between Walmart and Farmington Hill, where police made about 1,500 traffic stops. They made another 1,900 traffic stop along the half-mile stretch between Santa Rita Park to the High Bridge, just past the Durango Mall. The 50 mph road has no homes or businesses directly on the road, which gives it that “open-highway feel,” and drivers tend to put the pedal to the metal, Smith said. “I’m getting people going over 60 on South Camino.”East 32nd Street, between Main Avenue and Holly Avenue, where police made more than 1,090 traffic stops. The thoroughfare is a well-known speed trap in town, with its wide lanes, moderate congestion and meager 25 mph speed limit. But traffic stops have declined dramatically during the past year, in part because officers did heavy enforcement, which changed driving behavior, and in part because the city installed electronic speed limit signs that flash driver’s speed if they’re over the limit. “It’s just not as productive up there for us as it once was,” said Shupe.Florida Road is only 1½ miles long, but drivers are most likely to get stopped in the 500 block, which includes Chapman Hill and the roundabout, which had almost 200 traffic stops – almost double the next highest spot on Florida Road, which was near Maple Drive. In all, police made at about 1,350 stops on Florida Road.Goeglein Gulch Road, from the roundabout near Fort Lewis College north past Hillcrest Golf Club, where police made at least 880 stops.Three locations on Main Avenue: Between Animas View Drive and the Iron Horse Inn, where dispatchers logged about 1,875 stops; near the La Plata County Fairgrounds, where police made 261 stops; and in the 500 block of Main Avenue past the train depot, where police made 241 stops – including several drivers going the wrong way on a one-way road.
The two-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 160, between the DoubleTree Hotel intersection and Wildcat Canyon (County Road 141), where police made at least 2,850 of the traffic stops. “It’s a 45 mph, and for some reason everyone wants to go 60 mph,” said Officer Dave Smith.The half-mile stretch of road between Walmart and Farmington Hill, where police made about 1,500 traffic stops. They made another 1,900 traffic stop along the half-mile stretch between Santa Rita Park to the High Bridge, just past the Durango Mall. The 50 mph road has no homes or businesses directly on the road, which gives it that “open-highway feel,” and drivers tend to put the pedal to the metal, Smith said. “I’m getting people going over 60 on South Camino.”East 32nd Street, between Main Avenue and Holly Avenue, where police made more than 1,090 traffic stops. The thoroughfare is a well-known speed trap in town, with its wide lanes, moderate congestion and meager 25 mph speed limit. But traffic stops have declined dramatically during the past year, in part because officers did heavy enforcement, which changed driving behavior, and in part because the city installed electronic speed limit signs that flash driver’s speed if they’re over the limit. “It’s just not as productive up there for us as it once was,” said Shupe.Florida Road is only 1½ miles long, but drivers are most likely to get stopped in the 500 block, which includes Chapman Hill and the roundabout, which had almost 200 traffic stops – almost double the next highest spot on Florida Road, which was near Maple Drive. In all, police made at about 1,350 stops on Florida Road.Goeglein Gulch Road, from the roundabout near Fort Lewis College north past Hillcrest Golf Club, where police made at least 880 stops.Three locations on Main Avenue: Between Animas View Drive and the Iron Horse Inn, where dispatchers logged about 1,875 stops; near the La Plata County Fairgrounds, where police made 261 stops; and in the 500 block of Main Avenue past the train depot, where police made 241 stops – including several drivers going the wrong way on a one-way road.Dispatchers logged more than 190,000 “incidents” from May 2012 through March 2017. Here are the top 10 types of incidents police responded to:
– Vehicle stop: 38,212
– Extra patrol:* 27,193
– Suspicious:* 16,331
– Parking problem: 13,486
– Citizen assist:* 9,681
– Security check:* 8,025
– Intoxicated: 4,927
– Disturbance: 3,596
– Business alarm: 3,496
– Abandoned vehicle: 3,203
*Glossary:
Extra patrols are when officers drive past certain locations looking for anything suspicious. They can be requested by residents and business owners who are on vacation or worried about crime in their area. More often, they are generated by officers during routine patrols, sometimes because they know certain areas are prone to crime.
Suspicious calls tend to be anything or anyone that raise suspicion. “Anytime an officer thinks something is out of place, not quite fitting, they’ll call it out as suspicious activity,” said Durango police Cmdr. Ray Shupe.
Citizen assist is a label given to calls in which no crime was committed, but residents may have a question about the law or need pointing to a particular resource, such as Manna soup kitchen. “We get a lot of calls that are non-law enforcement related, but people think they’re law enforcement related,” Shupe said.
Security checks are different from extra patrols in that officers get out of their cars and check doors and windows for signs of foul play.
Some people call 911 for emergencies, including car crashes, health problems and violent crimes. But most people call for less-pressing matters, including needing a ride home or because they’re concerned about a raccoon, said Susanne Meyers, operations manager at Durango’s dispatch center. One woman called 911 in February 2016 wanting to know “what can help with cramps?”
“The important thing for everybody to remember is an emergency can be different to one person than another,” Meyers said. “If somebody calls 911 because their purse is stolen, to me that is not life or death, but to that person that is an emergency. There’s no belittling or judgment; we send help, we serve the public.”
Many 911 calls are accidental – kids playing with phones or hotel guests trying to place international calls. Dispatchers logged 1,503 incidents in which callers hung up after dialing 911 – sometimes during an actual emergency, but more often after mistakenly calling or prank calling from a pay phone.
They can occur from anywhere, but a few places stand out for how many 911 hang-up calls have occurred, including Walmart (51), Mercy Regional Medical Center (41), Conoco at 1990 Main Ave. (19), Durango High School (17), La Plata County Courthouse (13) and south City Market (12).
The Durango Police Department has a low tolerance for drinking alcohol in public – a crime frequently perpetrated by rafters or homeless residents.
Police responded to 833 reports of people with “open containers” in public. Of those, officers made 453 arrests, a 54 percent arrest rate.
Open container calls are spread out across the city, but a few hot spots include Iris Park, 1235 Camino del Rio; Schneider Park, 950 Roosa Ave.; College Drive and Main Avenue; and near the 32nd Street raft put-in.
“There’s an open-container law in town,” said Durango police Cmdr. Ray Shupe. “All of the parks and trails are alcohol-free.”
Dispatchers logged 908 assaults during the past five years. Of those, 279 resulted in arrests, 129 were under investigation and 27 resulted in warnings. Many didn’t result in any formal action.
Officers became the target of aggression in at least 38 incidents, according to dispatch logs.
Like most calls, there is little uniformity in reporting addresses of locations, but certain places stand out for the number of assaults, including Four Corners Health Care (18); Robert E. DeNier Youth Services Center (20); Durango High School (21); La Plata County Jail (22); Mercy Regional Medical Center (31); and the 100 block of west Eighth Street, which includes Joels and Colorado Pongas (37).
Durango is not without its share of scofflaws who flash, urinate, masturbate and fornicate in public. Callers reported 572 incidents of obscene conduct or indecent exposure.
Several might be considered amusing in nature – people having sex in cars or “mooning” the train. Others are more disturbing – men (and women) flashing strangers.
Police responded to at least 34 reports of people urinating in public; at least nine people were caught having sex in bushes or inside cars.
The short answer: Not really.
How do we know? Dispatchers logged an average of 107.5 calls per day for the Durango Police Department during a nearly five-year period. During that time, there were 61 full moons.
Each full moon has a specific time and date for any given geographical location. The Durango Herald compiled those times and dates for Durango, and then subtracted 12 hours and added 12 hours for a 24-hour period around each full moon.
We then applied those time ranges to the 190,000 incidents recorded, and found the average to be 107.7 calls – two-tenths of an increase – and something most statisticians would throw out.
Shupe said warm temperatures probably play a greater roll on crime than the moon.
“There are certainly days where you’re like, ‘Is the moon out?’ But I just think that’s an inside joke,” Shupe said.
Anecdotally speaking, police and dispatchers say crime seems to increase during the summer months when there’s more daylight, an influx in tourism and hotter temperatures. The number of incidents recorded by dispatchers in 2016 for the Durango Police Department seem to support their claim.
The daily average number of incidents increased from a low of 94 in December to a high of 142 incidents in both May and July 2016.
During any typical day, the fewest calls are generated between 4 and 8 a.m., and the most calls occur between 10 p.m. and midnight.
Looking at the five years worth of data, the five busiest days of the year occurred on July 4, July 3, July 5, July 24 and Sept. 1, in that order. The slowest day: Christmas – Dec. 25.
shane@durangoherald.com
Poll: How many times have you been stopped by Durango police in the last five years?
0 - 1220 - 71.35%
1-3 - 382 - 22.34%
More than 3 - 108 - 6.32%
About the data
The Durango Police Department sends a media report five days a week to The Durango Herald that includes a brief description of incidents logged by dispatchers.
The Herald compiled those reports for nearly five years – May 4, 2012, to March 24, 2017 – to look for trends. The compilation resulted in 190,417 unique incidents.
The media reports include the “nature” of the call (assault, traffic stop, citizen assist, etc.); address of the call; time and date of the call; how the call was cleared (warning, citation, arrest, etc.); and a place for notes about each call.
Some parts of the media report are uniform and easy to analyze, including the nature of calls, time of calls and clearance of calls. But other entries are subject to variations, including addresses, which makes analysis less precise.
The media reports are snapshots taken five times a week, but cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The data entered by dispatchers can change over time. For example, an incident classified as an “assault” can eventually be changed to “homicide” if the victim dies from the injuries.
Likewise, anyone can call police to report anything. But callers can easily misinterpret a situation or falsely report incidents. For example, some people will report they’ve been robbed when in fact they’re the victim of a theft. Robbery involves force, while theft can occur without a person’s knowledge. So it is possible some incidents are classified incorrectly until police have investigated a case, relayed the new information, and a dispatcher has adjusted the data.
