Crawford: Community cooperation key to police work
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STEUBENVILLE -- Serving the public and building partnerships are important to Wes Crawford.
That’s part of the message Crawford, who was sworn in as Steubenville’s police chief on July 21, shared Tuesday afternoon while speaking with members of the Steubenville Kiwanis Club at the Sycamore Youth Center.
“That’s a key takeaway of the police department -- we rely on cooperation from the community, especially its leaders,” Crawford said.
A member of the city department since 2003, Crawford was tapped to succeed Kenny Anderson, who retired from the position earlier this summer.
“One of my goals -- and it’s not really a goal, it’s a statement -- is that if somebody calls the police department, they’re going to get a police officer,” he explained. “I think that’s really important, because even the most minor things in police work are important. It could even be a parking complaint, and if we don’t send somebody, it could turn into something much, much bigger, because people start fighting and arguing, and then we’ve got a whole new mess to deal with.”
Making sure the department has the staffing it needs to accomplish that can be a challenge, Crawford admitted. The department has room for 41 members. Currently, Crawford said, that total is 40.
“We’ve been really lucky in the past couple of years to get some people hired,” he said. “It hasn’t always been like that. It’s been a kind of a struggle, probably during the past 10 years. But, during the last five, we’ve got some really, really good young people to commit themselves to doing the job.”
That includes work in the detective division, the 24-hour dispatch center, assigning three officers to the Jefferson County Drug Task Force, three K-9 handlers, an animal control division and a code enforcement officer. Several officers, he explained, are licensed to pilot drones.
“The city has been really supportive of our training programs,” Crawford said. “We’ve had the opportunity, especially during the last three years, to get a lot of our officers some really high-level training, which they enjoy -- and it makes them better cops. When you are a trained officer, you’re less prone to making mistakes. Education is really important.”
Recruiting is a challenge for the department, he explained, something law enforcement agencies across the country have been experiencing. Crawford pointed out that at one point in the recent past, the roster had been down by as many as eight officers. That’s a situation, he said, that can take a toll on the services the department can provide to the city.
“I know that some crimes have either gone unsolved or have been delayed because we didn’t have the staffing to dedicate to those,” Crawford said. “I don’t want a crime to go unsolved in this city.”
When they are understaffed, it can lead to officers being pulled away from the specialty divisions to be put on patrol, which, Crawford said, is the department’s most important function.
“We handle anywhere between 12,000 and 15,000 calls each year, which is a lot in a city this size,” he added. “You think that out of 18,000 people, we are getting 15,000 calls a year, and those range from a barking dog to the worst crimes that you can think of in this city. I always tell my guys that if you come here and work as a police officer for two years, you can go anywhere and work because you have pretty much seen anything there is to see in law enforcement.”
While recruits are needed, becoming a member of the city’s police department is demanding. Applicants face a lie detector test, a background check, drug screenings, physical tests and stress tests.
“We’re obviously paying for the services, but you’re putting months of work into applying for a job,” Crawford explained. “It just shows you the caliber of person you are going to end up with in the end.”
One of the biggest discussion topics in the town during recent weeks has been the 11 Flock cameras that have been placed around the city. Installed at no charge to the city through a grant from the Mary Jane Brooks Charitable Trust, the cameras can capture license plate and other information about a vehicle.
Supporters say the system is an important tool in fighting crime, while detractors say their ability to trace the movement of a suspect vehicle could also be used as a way to invade privacy. City Council decided the fate of the cameras during Tuesday night’s meeting.
“I can tell you that we have solved crimes because of them,” Crawford said. “We have solved crimes more quickly because of them. There’s no doubt in my mind we will continue to solve crimes because of them.
“One example was the recent shooting that was up by Dollar General in Hollywood Plaza,” he added. “Oftentimes, we don’t have the cooperation of witnesses. That guy who got shot up there, he’s OK. He got hurt, but he wasn’t in grave danger. He gave us nothing. We went to the store, got their video and the vehicle description, put that description into the Flock system, and we had a plate number within about 30 seconds. Then we used that plate number and the vehicle description to track it, with Flock and city cameras. We knew the movements, we could tell you exactly where it went and when it went, and we had that crime solved within 16 hours.”
Drug use in the city has been increasing during the past couple of years, especially cases involving methamphetamine, simply because of its ease of manufacture. Heroin use remains a problem, Crawford said, but the number of deaths that can be traced to fentanyl is down, around four or five this year.
Having access to treatment resources is a help, he added.
The city is safer than when he first joined the department, Crawford said, noting the number of reported shootings has been decreasing dramatically in recent years.