By KRISTINA SCALA
Voorhees’ crime rate decreased 60.4 percent last year, with 247 fewer offenses, according to the state’s recently released Uniform Crime Reporting statistics.
Police Chief Lou Bordi said he is glad to see the numbers are down, but the department does not rely solely on the state’s reports. The biggest change in the numbers is in thefts, which showed a decrease of 57 percent, or 130 offenses, from January to June 2013 when compared to January to June 2012.
Bordi said it’s difficult to indicate why crime decreases from year to year.
It could range from changes in the economy, a crime ring working in an area that may have been arrested and more.
“That can all have effects on local crime reports,” he said.
According to Bordi, the department uses an in-house system (computer-aided dispatch system) to keep track of reported crimes in the township.
“CAD systems are only as good as the information you put in them,” he said.
“While we use the UCR to try to track trends and patterns of certain crimes, I recognize that at the same time so much crime goes unreported that you can’t depend on it solely.”
In the next three months, the department will implement all possible means of social media to better communicate with the public, Bordi said.
The department currently uses Nixle to keep residents updated, but Bordi believes it doesn’t get out to enough people.
Social media would make it easier fort the department to notify the public when an area needs to be avoided, announce burglaries and aid the police in locating a suspect, Bordi said.
The department will also update its website, making navigation and communication between the department and the public easier.
“It creates lines of communication that otherwise wouldn’t have been there in the past, which I should think should lend itself to getting more people to report crimes,” he said.
To sign up for Nixle announcements, visit www.nixle.com.
To view full copy of the UCR report, visit www.njsp.org/info/pdf/ucr/current/071913_crimetrend.pdf.
