Police department releases quarterly report

Domestic violence arrests dropped 14 percent in the past year, according to the Bremerton Police Department’s third quarter report, which was released earlier this week.

At the end of September 2003, the department had made 415 arrests for domestic violence, but at the end of September this year, that number had dropped to 357.

“It’s encouraging to see a drop in the number of domestic violence arrests,” said Bremerton Police Chief Robert Forbes.

The overall number of crimes decreased by 11 percent from last year as the number of reported robberies, rapes and aggravated assaults also declined from the previous quarter.

The report also found that the majority of calls for police assistance occur between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. with more than 6,000 calls of the almost 15,000 calls for assistance coming from that time slot.

Forbes noted that the calls for service from the department have seen a steady increase, but said the increase does not necessarily reflect an increase in crimes.

“I think that the more we get out and educate people and they become more comfortable with the reporting process, the more they will utilize our services,” he said.

However, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts and simple assaults increased and reports of larceny remained unchanged from the previous quarter.

“Those are three areas that are difficult crimes to impact, although we’ve seen a decrease in the number of those crimes from previous years,” he said.

Prevention of these crimes depends doing things like locking windows and doors, securing all valuables in a vehicle, locking vehicle doors and having proper lighting at your residence, he said.

“A lot of it is common sense and that’s why I think crime prevention is so important,” Forbes said. “The more we can do to educate the public, the better chance we have of preventing crimes.”

On the drug front, the department’s K-9 detection team helped confiscate more than $31,000 in assets and cash and took nearly $24,000 worth of drugs off the streets.

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