Vandalism more than just a prank

by Gallatin Chief of Police Jim Wycoff

An article came out recently in the Kansas City newspaper that addressed the annual increase in vandalism when school ends for the summer vacation. Last summer we did not have a similar increase in vandalism in Gallatin. Unfortunately this summer is a different story.

The spate of incidents that occurred overnight on May 31, pretty much equaled or surpassed the total number of vandalism incidents we have had in Gallatin since I arrived here. It was an aberration. We have information that identifies suspects. Our efforts now are to work this information into a sound case so that we can present it to a prosecutor, or, more correctly, to the juvenile authorities in Chillicothe.

Since that one night the incidences of this type of crime have returned to a level closer to what we are accustomed to in Gallatin. An egging of a car, the shooting out a city streetlight with a pellet or BB gun, bent street signs and the pushing over of a soft drink machine have occurred since.

Other reports similar to the ones on May 31 have been traced back and either did occur or could have occurred on that date, but the victims were slow in contacting us to report them.

Vandalism isn’t simply an inconvenience or a youthful prank. The replacement of a street light bulb, for example, is about $47 and the soft drink machine that was overturned could cost as much as $1,700 to repair. This puts a financial burden on taxpayers as well as increases the chances that business people could decide to not provide the convenience of a soft drink dispenser due to the potential of financial losses.

There are few effective patrol or enforcement actions that can reduce vandalism short of oppressive restrictions on the probable suspect demographic. We could suppress this crime most effectively by a great deal of pro-active patrols that targeted young people…increased pedestrian and vehicle checks of young people and strict enforcement of our curfew.

In Gallatin this approach would probably be the wrong way to go. These types of oppressive tactics bring no guarantee of being counter productive.

We have a very good relationship with the teens in this community, I want to retain that relationship. It has contributed, in my opinion, to the low level of crimes here. I feel that it would simply be wrong to interfere with young people who were probably not involved in this unusual spate of vandalism.

Since we know who did commit these acts, we will bee concentrating our efforts on bringing these people to the attention of the appropriate authorities with a winnable court case. In the meantime we will be monitoring these individuals closely to reduce their opportunities to repeat the crime spree they committed.

With the staffing that we have on the Gallatin Police Department, we are able to provide high quality police service to the community. We are able to evaluate our reported crime and make adjustments, when necessary, in our patrol priorities and enforcement activities to address the ebb and flow of the relative low, overall, level of crime that we have here.

We make a conscious effort to vary patrol patterns and times to not be predictable and to utilize the element of surprise to keep individuals contemplating a criminal act from feeling that easy opportunity exists. Our force is small as the community and crime history is small. The types of crimes are minor when compared to larger communities and many other similarly small communities.

I feel that, though our patrols are as effective as they can be, that the primary reason that we have low crime is not the patrol tactics that we use, but the overall character and values of the majority of the citizens in this community. It is obvious to anyone interested that the people here are good, law abiding citizens who have high morals and sound values and do not tolerate criminal behavior.

As always, I encourage all citizens to report crime or suspicious activities as soon as you observe them. Anyone with information about any crime in town is requested to contact us so that we can put your information together with that of other sources to enhance the quality of cases we file against criminals. A four-officer force, or a force of any size, can’t be effective in suppressing crime without the support and cooperation of the citizens it serves.