A Message from the Chief of Police - Community Advisory

Often times the perception of crime and the actual crime rates are quite different. It is of little comfort to residents and patrons of a community if there exists a climate of fear regardless of the actual frequency of crime. While Takoma Park, despite being in an urban setting, is still a safe, open community, I do empathize with the feeling of vulnerability that a community member experiences when a crime occurs in their neighborhood. Unfortunately, misinformation passed on from neighbor to neighbor can exacerbate the situation. In addition to the community alerts and crime summaries which the police department provides, I would like to encourage residents to take advantage of www.crimereports.com to view the dispatch data for crimes occurring in the region. This service includes police calls populated by Montgomery County (including Takoma Park), Prince George's County as well as the District of Columbia. The data is drawn from dispatched calls. The locations are where the call was originated from, not always from where the event occurred. For example, the Washington Adventist Hospital might show a spike of assaults, robberies or sex crimes as the police are dispatched there when the victim is receiving medical treatment. This data is drawn from computer aided dispatch data, not from the official crime reports themselves. It also provides sex offender registry information. Users can also subscribe to customizable alerts. Additionally, our Crime Analyst has reviewed the last several years’ statistics for burglaries occurring between January and September, as shown below:
2010 - 106 burglaries
2011 -95 burglaries
2012 - 56 burglaries
As one can see, we have had a significant reduction in break-ins this year.
The police department has increased patrols both in plain clothes, uniform, bike and bait cars in and around neighborhoods. As a result of very thorough evidence collection and crime scene processing by the patrol division, follow up by investigators and collaboration with the other jurisdictions, we have made arrests for several burglaries. There were two groups of individuals charged with these crimes. We have also recently obtained a warrant for one of the individuals for one of the burglaries on Elm Avenue (they had already been charged with another) as a result of forensic evidence tying him to the crime. He is already in custody for other burglaries and carjackings in Takoma Park, Prince George’s County, Silver Spring and the District of Columbia. These individuals are responsible for the majority of the break-ins in the Sycamore/Elm areas. While we cannot charge them with all of these crimes as it is often times not possible to tie them to them, we are very confident that the M.O. is identical. Since these arrests, there has only been one burglary in the City and that was by a subject known to the victim.
Often times our cars are patrolling and unless one looks out the window at that particular moment, they won't be seen. Both the former interim chief, Drew Tracy, and I have driven through the neighborhoods several times a day on a daily basis in our unmarked cars. The actual burglary numbers were a total of 16 burglaries in the entire city over about a 90 day period. The aforementioned individuals were responsible for the vast majority of these and since their arrests; the rash of burglaries has basically stopped.
I know that there has been some misinformation floating among the various list servers as well as in the neighborhoods. I hope these facts help clarify the action taken by the police department regarding these events.