From Chief Walsh: The purpose of this summary is to inform Rye residents of the types of crimes and quality of life complaints the police department has investigated over the last nine years. Because of the type of activity Rye has had through those nine years, I am recommending an additional officer in 2015. I make this recommendation in order to ensure the police department will be able to keep up with the increased calls for service, severity of crime, number of arrests caused by a rapidly growing use of our beaches, increased year around population and roads and the increase of quality of life complaints by residents.
- 2004 (5) night time burglaries while people were home in bed sleeping.
- 2007 (1) shooting at a house while people were home sleeping.
- 2009 (4) night time burglaries while people were home sleeping. Person arrested, convicted, served committed time in prison. Charles Normil got out of prison and committed night time burglary in Bedford, NH home owners were assaulted by Charles Normil. Both home owners received serious body injury during assault.
- 2009 (1) night time shooting at a house while people were home sleeping.
Since 2006 the Police Department has operated under two philosophies. The first is aggressive enforcement of Motor Vehicle Laws. Constant patrols in order to maintain a high level of visibility with the hope of preventing criminal activities. This does not always work. We also know from experience the way to prevent further crime is to aggressively investigate, solve and arrest the perpetrators. This also applies to those who violate town ordinances, such as alcohol, dog violations and other quality of life complaints. Having another officer will allow officers more time to find critical evidence at crime scenes that will assist in solving crimes and arresting those responsible. This is labor intensive and time consuming, but proven to lower crime rates and quality of life complaints. The following are some examples of the type of calls for service officers are investigating and were pulled away from doing aggressive enforcement:
From RCL:
