Pemberton Township’s arrest rates are lowest in the countyBy Sharon Lurye. Published October 4, 2014 in the Burlington County Times.

PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP — The question of whether the police department is understaffed has become a hot button issue in Pemberton, as mayoral candidate Richard Prickett has made beefing up the police force a major talking point in his campaign.

But one statistic puts the issue in a stark new light: Pemberton’s clearance rate, which shows how many people are arrested for each crime that’s reported, has been falling since 2010.

In 2013, for every 100 index crimes that were reported in Pemberton, only seven were cleared.

This statistic comes from the data that police must submit every year to the New Jersey State Police for their annual Uniform Crime Report. A crime is considered “cleared” when someone is arrested, or when the police are prepared to make an arrest but cannot do it for reasons beyond their control — for example, the suspect is being tried in another jurisdiction.

Index crimes fall into seven categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny or auto theft.

Pemberton’s clearance rate is the lowest for any police department in Burlington County. According to the 2012 Uniform Crime Report, Burlington County’s overall clearance rate was 21 percent for index crimes, while Pemberton’s rate lagged behind that year at 7.4 percent.

Many residents expressed shock at the rate.

“I see the cops every day, all day, so stuff should be found out,” said John Jefferson, 37. “That scares me.”

“That does surprise me,” said Chuck, 73, who declined to give his last name. “I guess people really aren’t talking. That’s what it takes to get it. You need somebody to give you input, because if there’s no input … you’re not going to get anything.”

Police Chief David Jantas admitted that understaffing is an issue with the department, as it is with many police jurisdictions.

“I will say that except for this year, the staffing in our Investigative Services Division (detectives) has been stable,” he said. “In 2014, we had one detective mobilized by the military, one on medical leave and two that have recently retired. Along with these issues we have had an extraordinary amount of officers not available for duty for various reasons. We have been working to bring our staffing levels up.”

The department has hired five new police officers this year, four of whom are in the police academy.

Right now the department has 50 officers assigned, but only 45 are available for duty. Jantas declined to go into the details of why.

Out of those 45 cops, 33 are sergeants or officers who are available for patrol, in a town that’s more than 60 square miles.

“We have police so spread out on the shifts that they cannot give themselves backup in a hurry because they’re somewhere else,” said Fred Moorhead, a Republican who’s running for council. “The territory is enormous, comparatively speaking, and the cops are few.”

By ordinance, the department is authorized to have as many as 57 officers.

“It’s appalling that we don’t have what we need and that we’re not funding what we need as well,” said Prickett, the Republican mayoral candidate running against incumbent Democrat David Patriarca. He said that the department’s staff needs to be brought up to 57.

Additional officers mean more funding would be needed for salary and benefits, leaving officials to determine how to pay for any increase in force.

“It’s a matter of priorities — you need to look within the budget to see where the money is,” Prickett said. He said that he would be willing to cut out “unnecessary spending.”

“I think having a fully-staffed police department has to be a priority,” said Prickett.

Moorhead criticized Patriarca for not doing more.

“He used to be a police officer and he couldn’t see this coming? He couldn’t hire enough police?” he said about Patriarca, who was a cop for 26 years.

Moorhead promised that, if elected, “within four years we will fully staff the police department.”

Patriarca pointed out that it’s very easy to score political points by making those kinds of promises, but actually doing it is harder.

“My opponents are promoting fully staffing the police department, and that’s certainly a goal, but that has to be looked at, ‘At what expense?’ ” he said. “Because something is going to have to go. You can’t bring on an extra half a million dollars in expense and salaries without pushing the cap limit to the max or exceeding the cap limit.”

Pemberton spent $4,841,615 on police salaries and wages in 2012 and $4,922,681 in 2013, according to the town budget.

Patriarca said that the police department has been trying to hire more officers every year since he has been in office. However, the department is bound by a civil service rule called “The Rule of 3.”

Candidates take a law enforcement exam and are ranked based on their test scores. A police department can only hire someone who is ranked in the top three spots in the hiring list.

If the department wants to hire someone who is lower on the list, they have to wait. A person can move up on the list when someone from the top three spots is hired.

Patriarca said there have been times when the police chief was not satisfied with anyone in the top three and preferred to wait until next year.

“It’s such a sensitive position that you don’t want to bring somebody on just to fill a spot. A warm body is not the answer,” said Patriarca. “But it’s not for not trying. We’ve tried to bring people on and sometimes it doesn’t work with the academy.”

The mayor also said that the low staff level may not be the reason for the low clearance rate.

“To say the staffing is the cause of the problem, I can’t say I totally agree with that,” he said. “More officers can certainly help if they are applied correctly, but the investigation division has maintained its staffing numbers for quite some time.”

Patriarca added, “There’s nothing that indicated that we had a drastic spike in crime. ... We’re not the crime-ridden town that (is presented in the media).”

Indeed, since Patriarca arrived in office in 2011, the crime rate has gone down.

Pemberton had a rate of 31.7 index crimes per 1000 residents in 2011, and it had a rate of 27.5 index crimes per 1000 residents in 2013. (This rate was calculated based on Census data and statistics from the Uniform Crime Reports, found at http://www.njsp.org/info/stats.html#ucr).

Pemberton has a population of almost 28,000 people and had 767 index crimes reported last year, of which 54 ended in an arrest or clearance.

However, the total crime rate doesn’t tell the whole story. While nonviolent crimes like burglaries and thefts went down, the violent crime rate increased.

There were 2.4 violent index crimes per 1000 residents in 2011, but 3.1 in 2013.

There are many different variables that can affect a city’s clearance rate besides the size of the police force. One important factor is whether residents are willing to work with police.

“There are some that just don’t wish to get involved with the criminal justice system for fear of testifying (in court) as a witness,” said Jantas. “There are also those who do not want to be considered ‘snitches.’ We have even come across this with some victims who do not want to cooperate with us.”

He said that people can leave anonymous tips at the Confidential Tip Line at 609-894-3352, or send an anonymous email from the department’s website, pembertonpolice.com.

Jefferson said that more community meetings might help residents to feel more comfortable working with the cops.

“No one knows the police,” he said. “We don’t speak or anything. (We’re) two different worlds.”

Paul Davenport, 34, said that he sees police officers often but does not interact with them. “I just see them in their car on their cellphone,” he said. The arrest rate could be improved by police “getting out of their cars and putting their phones down,” he said.

Local resident Amanda, 20, who declined to give her last name, said she wasn’t surprised that the clearance rate is so low, because there’s just too much crime.

“I don’t think they can stop it. There’s too much, you know what I mean? There’s just too much violence, too many crazies running around,” she said.

Still, she thinks that hiring more police officers would definitely help.“My uncle’s a cop, so I know Pemberton Township doesn’t have enough police,” she said. “They can’t be everywhere at once. That’s all they need to do, just hire more cops. Just gotta win the lottery first so they can afford it.”