Northborough, MAssachusetts
Police Department
December, 1997

  The Northborough Police Department is a nationally accredited, full service police agency with 27 full-time employees. Twenty of the fulltime positions are sworn police officers with the rest being civilian employees primarily filling the role of telecommunicators. The telecommunicators answer the emergency and business phone lines and dispatch emergency service personnel, including the fire department. Our dispatch center has state of the art equipment and uses computer aided dispatching technology. Each of our police cars is equipped with a mobile data terminal which allows them to have computer access to the police station computer and also to the state computer data bases of the Registry of Motor Vehicle and the Criminal History Systems Board which provides criminal history checks and wanted status of individuals. The police department has successfully applied for and been awarded a number of grants funded by federal and state money. In 1997, the total grant awards exceeded $80,000. The base pay for two of the sworn police officer positions is 75% funded by federal grant money.

   The average response time to get a police officer or EMS provider to the scene of a 911 emergency in 1997 was under 4 minutes. For non emergency type calls the average response time was under 11 minutes.

   During the last year Officer Stephanie Jones resigned to take a police officer's position with the Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority Police Department and Sergeant Frank Kellicker, a 24-year veteran of the police department, retired. Officers hired to replace these two are Phil Martin and Demos Agiomavritis. Also during the year a promotional examination and process took place resulting in the promotion to sergeant of Officer James Bruce and Officer Patrick McStay.

   Some interesting benchmark information follows. This comparative data gives the reader a snapshot of the police department as it compares with all other similar sized departments in the state. (Data totals from 36 other communities}

Ratio of full time police employees to population:
total state average = 1:510
Northborough average = 1 482
Ratio of supervisors to full time employees:
total state average = 1:4.3
Northborough average = 1:3.8
Percentage of total police budget to total town budgets in sate:
state average = 6.4%
Northborough average = 5.8%
Percentage of total police budget that is overtime:
total state average = 8.7%
Northborough average = 7%
Dollar per person compared to total police budget
total state average = $101.11
Northborough average = $97.46
Dollar per person compared to total town budget
total state average = $1,507
Northborough average = $1,683
The rate per 1,000 Northborough inhabitants for housebreaks in 1997 was 13
For aggravated assaults: .38
For domestic violence: 9.0
For rape: 0
For vandalism: 8.5

   While the rate of serious crime in Northborough is far below national averages for similar offenses, the yearly increasing number of domestic violence cases is a serious cause for concern.

   The following is a five-year breakdown of all traffic citations and warnings issued as well as the five-year totals for all motor vehicle accidents

   A five year comparative breakdown on some of the event classifica tions follows.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
KENNETH HUTCHINS
CHIEF OF POLICE

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