Protecting and Serving the Dixfield community.

“Calls For Service”, often referred to as Incidents, include all official police activities. These official activities would generally result in the creation of an Incident Report. In fact, the Records Management System (RMS) that we use at Dixfield PD is designed to require an Incident Report every time any official police activity or duty is performed. In order to facilitate a higher level of activity from all officers, we have made a change in the way we document security checks of public, private and commercial properties. All of these checks are now documented by way of a time entry on a generic log sheet where properties are individually listed.

 

The graph below shows the total calls for service from January 1999 through the end of 2004. Columns are labeled appropriately with the actual number of recorded incidents for each year. In addition to calls for service resulting in Incident Reports, many incidents also required investigation and accompanying Case Reports (records of investigative activity).

 

You can find “supporting data” which provides annual details of the breakdown of all “Calls For Service” in the Activity Data pages for each of the years shown. The information contained in this “Calls For Service” analysis shows only the general activity of the Department, compared against the periods shown.

 

2003 was an unprecedented year with even more Calls for Service than any previous year shown. Click for details.

Annual “Calls For Service” Volume

Calls for police services are on the rise (overall) in Dixfield. Expectations are changing as society and its demands change. Even in relatively small towns like Dixfield, people are expecting a police response to more and more public situations.

Also, society is demonstrating an ever-increasing lack of respect for the law, morality, family values and other restraints common to public life in decades past. This is increasingly evident in school violence, drug and alcohol abuse, family violence and many other areas of life.

As a direct result of the assault on America, September 11, 2001, police departments all over the country are making a more conscious effort to establish and maintain basic levels of security. Whereas previous decades have seen a primary focus on security of commercial properties because of the potential for burglary and theft, the new emphasis includes public properties where the potential for threat to an entire population is higher in this new society. This is also true of the Town of Dixfield.

As a department, our security focus has changed. We now have an increased emphasis on security in areas of risk or potential risk for the town as a whole. Rather than limiting our security concerns to safety of property, we are re-thinking the way that we look at security risks to the entire population of Dixfield.

We invite you to share your security concerns with us. We will take your comments and suggestions into consideration as we change the way we work. “To Protect and Serve” means keeping your needs and concerns at the forefront in all strategy development. Simply write us at dixfldpd@megalink.net.

Increase in call-volume detailed:

Calls for police services in 2001 were up nearly 54% from 1998. At the end of 2002, calls for service had experienced another increase of nearly 62% over the previous year. The trend continued in 2003 with another annual increase of more than 25% over 2002. The average daily activity level was approximately 4.25 calls for service per day in 1998 and more than doubled to 9.25 daily calls for service in 2002. In spite of the increasing workload, the police force remains a 4-man (full-time) department.