Crime rates have decreased and reports cleared have increased in Hanover County.

That’s how Col. V. Stuart Cook, sheriff, opened his department’s budget proposal to the Hanover County Board of Supervisors last Wednesday.

Accomplishments were highlighted in his remarks, which were followed by Lt. Col. David Hines addressing the challenges the Sheriff’s Office faces.
The crime rate, the sheriff said, is the number of reported crimes. Hanover County saw a decrease of 6.5 percent in 2009. Part one offenses, major crimes, posted a 7.7 percent drop.

“Our crime rate decreased, while our clearance rate (a solution to a particular crime) increased,” he said. “The clearance rate increased 1.4 percent for all reported crimes, and increased 1.3 percent for part one offenses.”

Three areas of crime saw increases in 2009.

Aggravated assault cases rose 39 percent, with the Sheriff’s Office clearing 88 percent of them. “Assaults accounted for 16 percent of our total crime in Hanover.”

Simple assaults and domestic assaults grew by 11 and 3 percent, respectively.

Breaking and entering declined 1.77 percent. “Our clearance rate for B&Es in 2009 was 51 percent,” Cook said. “This is truly an outstanding clearance rate for this offense.” Of known offenders, the sheriff said 51 percent were non-Hanover County residents.

Burglaries accounted for 3 percent of the county’s total crime.

Reported larcenies decreased by 10.5 percent, while the clearance rate was 53 percent. The sheriff said larcenies represent 26 percent of the total crime here.
Reported vandalisms also decreased last year by 1.8 percent. Twenty-seven percent of those crimes were cleared. Of known offenders, 71 percent were Hanover County residents. Vandalisms accounted for 11 percent of total crime.

Reported robberies did not change in 2009, Cook said. For 2008 and 2009, 9 were reported. The clearance rate was 56 percent. Forty-two percent of the known offenders were non-Hanover County residents. Robberies accounted for less than 1 percent of total crime.

“Again, when you look at the number of robberies occurring in the Metro Richmond area, this is an accomplishment that I do not believe the average citizen truly comprehends,” Cook said.

In addition to the decrease in the crime rate and increase in the clearance race, the sheriff noted several other accomplishments, including the recently enhanced volunteer program.

“In 2009, our 106 citizen volunteers logged over 4,800 hours and saved the county over $98,000.”

Opportunities included in the volunteer program are: customer service assistance, fleet management assistance, records department assistance, clerical assistance, logistical support assistance, chaplain program, reserve deputy sheriff, motorists assistance, foreign language interpretation, supply room assistance, special events assistance, community outreach assistance, Explorer program, courtesy patrol, and academy role player.

In an attempt to save the county money, the Sheriff’s Office separated from the Rappahannock Regional Criminal Justice Academy and started its own Independent Academy. On Feb. 8, the first Basic Law Enforcement Academy got under way.

“By the creation of this academy, we are anticipating saving over $71,000 per year in Regional Academy dues,” Cook said.

In 2009, the Sheriff’s Office offered three citizen academies, with the original Citizens Police Academy being accompanied by a Senior Citizens Academy and a Youth Academy. The total number of graduates was 104.

Saying “they could not be more wrong,” Cook told the supervisors about “some members of the community who give county leaders no credit for being excellent managers, for planning for the future nor for being good stewards of their tax dollars.”

“I have heard the ill-informed say that they can’t understand why the county has not had to lay people off, most all of the private companies have had to do so. My answer to them all is this, we had the sense of responsibility to see the downturn coming and chose to not fill the majority of the new positions that you, our Board of Supervisors, approved for us in 2008,” Cook said. “Yes, 2008, we froze these positions because the cost of gasoline was going through the roof and we were very concerned that we did not have enough money in our budget to get us through the year.”

“We also knew that we had never been budgeted enough money to pay for our overtime costs and so we frozen a position to pay for this shortage. We did not run out and fill the positions just because we were authorized to do so,” the sheriff added. “We continued this self-imposed freeze and then Mr. Rhu Harris (County Administrator Cecil R. “Rhu” Harris) advised us that he was glad that we had because the income to the county was much less than anticipated and he needed us to keep the positions frozen indefinitely.”

“Since that time in 2009,” Cook said, “we have kept seven positions frozen and have again self-imposed one additional position to remain frozen, knowing that economic times are not getting better.”

He said the county “has been operated very efficiently,” citing the Triple “A” Bond Rating as an example.

Noting the continued hard work, though short-handed, of his staff, Cook said the Sheriff’s Office continues “to keep our citizens safe.” “We have done this in spite of the difficulties that we face. I know of no other profession where the man or woman wakes up and prepares to go on duty by strapping on a bulletproof vest, with the exception of our military. I know of no other man or woman who goes to work each day not knowing if they will return home safe to their families, again with the exception of our military.”

As he closed, the sheriff said he is “not in favor of a tax increase for any of our citizens and hope that this will not be recommended as we will continue to do the best that we can with the current resources that we have.”

Addressing the Sheriff’s Office’s challenges, Hines said, “Through detailed strategic planning and precise execution, we stayed ahead of crime and the impacts that followed it.”

In the budget process with Harris’s office, Hines said the Sheriff’s Office was “asked to project long-term impacts of reduced budgets for law enforcement.”
The Sheriff’s Office faces a 1.48 percent reduction from last year’s budget. Another change comes in the form of $102,000 being removed from the facilities management budget and reallocate the money to the sheriff’s budget this year.” That move, Hines said, increases the budget by $102,000. Those monies previously had been paid out of facilities management.

He did note that “There was no additional cost to the county; therefore, our decrease from last year, comparing apples to apples, is truly just over 2 percent.”
Hines pointed to skyrocketing increases in the Virginia Retirement System, medical insurance and life insurance. “The Compensation Board funding, which is Virginia’s mechanism to fund law enforcement, continues to decline all the while forcing the county to pay more for its law enforcement services.”

These days, Hines said, “the county is now funding upwards of 87 percent of the Sheriff’s Office budget while the commonwealth is funding less than 14 percent. As late as this year alone, the Compensation Board cut $207,000 from the Sheriff’s Office budget.”

To prevent layoffs and furloughs, the lieutenant colonel said “it was necessary for all county employees to again not receive a raise in the 2011 budget. The Sheriff’s Office, like other county departments, has operated for the last three years with significant vacancies. Rather than hire, only to have to lay off personnel one or two years later. We believe this to be competent management.”

Hines also told the supervisors that staffing in the Sheriff’s Office remains at 2006 levels. “The hardship this causes is once we are again funded and can hire for these eight frozen positions, it will take no less than 12 months to properly train and deploy them.”

“Staffing is critical to our ability to maintain services to our citizens,” he said. “Reduced staffing accompanying increased demands on services equates to an inevitable cut of services.”

In order to provide the level of service Hines said the county has grown to demand, staffing and proper deployment of officers is a critical component.
“Deploying our personnel focuses on the assignment of 67 percent of all sworn staff to uniform patrol for maximum visibility and the quickest response to crimes in progress and calls for assistance.”

Schools are staffed with resource and DARE officers, providing “a uniform presence and marked patrol vehicle in an effort to deter and prevent crimes at our schools, while maintaining a safe environment for our children.”

Last fall, the sheriff was forced to remove four school resource officers from the middle schools to staff patrol vacancies. “This measure,” Hines said, “while not an easy decision, did for a short period relieve shortages in staffing our uniform patrols. This reassignment of officers may be one of the measures we are forced to make on a more permanent basis if budget continue to shrink.”

The Sheriff’s Office considers several criteria in dealing with staffing and deployment plans, including law enforcement officers per 10,000 citizens, as well as per square mile.

“There is no less importance of an emergency in the outlying rural areas than in the more populated areas when one of our citizens dials 911,” Hines said.
Currently, he said, Hanover County is the lowest per square mile staffed law enforcement agency in the area. That’s in direct comparison to Henrico, Richmond and Chesterfield.

He closed his remarks by saying, “Please know that with a 14 percent decrease in operating expenses this year, necessary to facilitate increases in overall Sheriff’s Office budget including a second year of no computer replacements, a 17 percent reduction in training, a 20 percent decrease in the operating budget since 208 and operating with nearly the same authorized positions as were allocated in 2006, the law enforcement our citizens have come to expect cannot continue to sustain itself.”

“And we will remain a part of, not apart from, the community.”

G. Ed Via III, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, thanked Cook and Hines “for all you and your entire department do to keep the citizens of Hanover County safe.” He added, “On a personal note, you’re running the finest sheriff’s department in the country.”