December 27, 2023 / By mobanmarket
DARIEN, IL – A Darien police survey a couple of months ago found that only 2 percent of respondents felt unsafe in their neighborhoods during the day.
Among the more than 500 respondents, that rate increased to 14 percent at night.
In his monthly report, Police Chief Greg Thomas said 61 percent of all local crimes occur during the day, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The city averages 1.6 crimes per day. And many of those offenses are not considered “street” crimes, Thomas said. They are crimes such as domestic violence and retail theft.
Thomas said “only” 56 percent of residents felt the police patrol their neighborhoods enough.
“This is an interesting perception,” he said in the report. “With numbers like this, we’ve failed whether perception or reality.
The police department employs 34 officers, the same number it did when Thomas took the helm eight years ago.
Now, though, 27 are patrol officers, compared with 25 before. That’s because the department has one fewer deputy chief and one fewer sergeant, the chief said.
“There are two additional patrol officers, the sworn position that will answer your call for service, investigate a crime, crash or concern, will take proactive actions, etc.,” he said.
The chief noted instances last year in which aldermen discussed comments from constituents about not seeing the police.
He said the department examined data showing how often officers patrolled streets where residents said they weren’t seeing any.
“I was able to demonstrate, looking at our GPS signals from patrol cars that, though the public said there were no patrols, there were police patrolling,” Thomas said. “(I)n fact, one squad drove the street three times in one shift when the community said zero.”
At a City Council meeting in 2022, Alderman Joe Kenny said residents may have the wrong perception about how often officers drive by.
He said that after he was elected, he went on ride-alongs with police officers. Shortly after one of them, he said a resident told him officers never go past his house.
“I said that wasn’t true,” Kenny said. “He said, ‘How can you say that?’ I go, ‘I know for a fact that a police car went by your house three times in an eight-hour shift on Friday night.'”
By Kenny’s account, the resident was puzzled until the alderman told him that he was on a ride-along. Kenny said residents may not see the squad cars going by because they’re not looking.
“But the police are through our neighborhoods more than we think they are,” he said.
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