Town of Summerville Planning Area - BCD Council of Governments

work to reduce crime and improve the safety of residents of Summerville. To raise awareness of thedepartment and its efforts, the department coordinates several outreach programs, such as theCommunity against Domestic Abuse, School Resource Officer, and Explorer Post 751. The department alsohelps to implement the Youth Court program in schools located in the Town. The following figures give abrief overview of trends in police service and crime in Summerville over the last decade.140,000120,000100,00080,00060,00040,000Figure CF1: Trends in Calls for PoliceService, Town of Summerville 2000‐200965,240 67,976 74,23562,97046,152 50,24653,70089,704125,266114,25020,00002000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009Source: Summerville PoliceDepartmentDue to steady population growth in the town over the last several years, the general trends in terms of thenumber of police calls per year has increased substantially, as shown in Figure CF1, more than doublingbetween 2000 and 2009 with a large spike in calls in 2008, when the total number of calls increased by 40percent to over 125,000. It is understood from conversations with Town officials that a large portion ofthese calls that took place in 2008 were related to Town residents calling to have their homes checkedwhile on vacation.While the number of police calls has increased substantially in recent years, the number of arrests thathave taken place in Summerville is more in line with the overall increase in population in the Town,increasing 35 percent between 2000 and 2009, as shown in Figure CF2. The largest change in the Town forspecific types of crimes in percentage terms would be in the number of robberies and aggravated assaults,while the greatest change in overall number of crimes would be in larcenies (as shown in Table CF1).Areas within the Summerville Planning Area that are outside of the Town boundaries are served by theirrespective county’s Sheriff’s Department.Community Facilities Element Page 2