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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 2015)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2015 Police: Forcible rape reports have increased since 2012 Astoria crime statistics Continued from Page 1A In our town Overall, Johnston said, he believes his department has a positive perception in the community, mostly because the officers are involved lo- cally raising their children, coaching sports teams and living in the town they pa- trol. “While many departments are currently struggling with their community’s perception of them, we have not had this same problem,” Johnston wrote in the report. “It is not because we have not had con- troversy. Instead it is because we have a department that has legitimacy in its commu- nity.” Another way APD works to control how it is viewed is E\ FROOHFWLQJ UDFLDO SUR¿OLQJ data. Since 2009, the depart- ment has tallied the perceived race of all people stopped by the police. Between 2011 and 2014, a total of 15,093 perceived white people have been stopped. In that same time period, 878 Hispanics, 230 Asians, 163 blacks and 16 Native Americans were stopped. “A lot of people would not suspect we keep that data,” Johnston said. “By putting that out front and saying this is what we are doing, it’s easy to see the stops are propor- tional to the representation in the community.” Crime by the numbers A portion of the annual report shows the number of citations issued each year. A total of 1,291 were issued in 2014, a steady increase from 962 issued in 2011. The vast majority of ci- tations are for speeding, driving while uninsured and Total reported crimes in Astoria were up more than 4 percent in 2014, according to Oregon Uniform Crime Reporting data. Daily Astorian file Astoria Police Officer Andrew Randall wakes up a transient at the Sixth Street Viewing Platform who had previously caused a disturbance with a motorist next to McDonald’s in September. Randall cited the man for having an open container of beer, told him he had to leave the river- front park and offered him a Clatsop Community Action resource book, which was declined. driving while a license is sus- pended. For major crimes, Astoria Police report statics to the Oregon Uniform Crime Re- porting System that sends its data to the FBI. According to the statics, serious crimes such as rape, burglary, as- sault increased in the past few years. Reports of forcible rape increased from two in 2012 to 14 in 2014. Burglaries went from 145 in 2012 to 149 in 2014. Assaults rose to 177 last year from 144 in 2012. One homicide was reported in 2012, none the following two years. Other crimes, such as rob- bery, larceny and motor vehi- cle theft, saw decreases since 2012. All police agencies are required to transfer to the National Incident Based Reporting System no later than 2017. Johnston said the Crime Homicide Forcible rape Robbery Aggravated assault Burglary Larceny Motor vehicle theft Simple assault Arson Forgery Fraud Stolen property Vandalism Weapon offenses Prostitution Sex crime Drug offenses Offense against family Liquor law offense Disorderly conduct Trespass Runaway Officer assaulted Other 2012 1 2 11 19 145 469 30 144 2 15 46 Total Source: Astoria Police Department Informing the public Daily Astorian file In September, Astoria Police Officer Andrew Randall con- ducts a sobriety test on a teen who was seen in the area of a suspected house party in Uppertown shortly after midnight. Randall and Officer Cory Gerig stopped several more teenagers walking in the area to ask for identifica- tion and see if anyone had been drinking. Four teens end- ed up being cited for curfew violations. VZLWFK ZLOO UHTXLUH RI¿FHUV to report nearly double the details of a crime, which will UHTXLUHDVLJQL¿FDQWLQFUHDVH in data entry time. Although it will take more staff time to report to NI- BRS, Johnston said, it helps that his department is already keeping its own statics. The 2014 annual report was submitted to the Astoria City Council and included in the consent calendar at its Tuesday meeting. City Councilor Drew Her- zig moved the report off of the consent calendar — items previously discussed by the council that have complete approval — to better highlight the importance of the Police Department’s report. Herzig said he hopes to see more public reports from city departments in the future that help engage local citizens with the business of the city. A goal for the City Council this year is to encourage such reports. “The questions we get from 2013 2014 14 7 15 149 319 21 177 4 17 125 142 12 5 1 34 115 419 17 208 5 22 83 2 192 18 23 127 13 68 278 826 41 8 87 15 156 19 91 387 810 34 21 99 224 17 2 29 131 19 119 346 1022 30 19 66 2,509 2,753 2,873 Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group people are ‘What is the city doing with this or that?’ To get UHSRUWV OLNH WKLV VSHFL¿FDOO\ saying ‘This is how the mon- ey is spent’ and ‘This is our approach,’ is to me, part of the function of any municipality to continually inform the public,” Herzig said. Johnston believes the re- port does a fair job of provid- ing a high-level overview. He welcomes any input on what the public would like to see in future reports. “It’s a great summary of the recent period of time. It is hard to really quantify the work we do and it’s nice to put some metrics on that work and show people what we are doing,” Johnston said. School: ‘I did not expect to grow as much this year as we did’ Continued from Page 1A Carper, principal at Long Beach Elementary — this de- spite the district’s decision to move all sixth-grade classes from the elementary schools to Ilwaco Middle School be- ginning in September 2014. It is possible Long Beach could have as many as 300 students in the next school year, Carper estimates. The growth likely has many sources: people mov- ing to the area, migrant stu- dents passing through, new kids entering the grade lev- els. The district hasn’t been able to tie it to any one thing, but enrollment has been on WKHULVHIRUWKHODVW¿YH\HDUV Before that, Ocean Beach, like many coastal districts in Washington and Oregon, had been on a downward trend for a decade. Long Beach Elementary was renovated and expanded after voters ap- proved a bond issue in 2003; September 2005 marked Observer file photo Long Beach Elementary is maxed out in terms of enrollment, even after moving sixth-graders to Ilwaco last September. the start of classes in the re- newed facility, with citizens second-guessing their deci- sion in light of a steadily de- clining student census. Now, the enrollment situa- WLRQKDVÀLSÀRSSHG “I’m pretty sure we’re OK for one more year,” Carp- er said, but added, “These last two months we’ve done nothing but increase in en- rollment and we haven’t lost any kids.” Nor has he heard that any families are leaving the area and the district next year. Several students transferred to Long Beach from Ocean Park because their families moved, Carper said. Committee meets Jan. 29 Risner has tasked a new committee made up of teach- ers, principals, parents and a school board member with brainstorming solutions to the overcrowding. The com- mittee will evaluate the pros and cons of all potential solu- tions and eventually make recommendations to Risner DQG WKH ERDUG 7KHLU ¿UVW meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at the District 2I¿FHLQ/RQJ%HDFK This type of committee has been formed before to ad- dress overcrowding at Long Beach Elementary. The solu- tion that time was to install a portable at the school. “It helped for that year,” Carper said. The situation this year would have been even more GLI¿FXOW LI WKH VL[WKJUDGH classes hadn’t left for the Middle School. “Thank goodness we did that,” Carper said. “There’s just no place for two more classrooms right now.” After the sixth-grade stu- dents left, Long Beach teach- ers regained the use of their staff room which had dou- Dog show: This will be Westminster’s 139th show Continued from Page 1A losing gracefully,” she says. More than 2,700 dogs are slated to compete in the tra- ditional main event — breed judging — at Westminster’s 139th annual show Feb. 16 DQG 0DNLQJ WKHLU ¿UVW appearances are the coton de tulear (pronounced koh- TOHN’ du TOO’-lay-ahr), an easygoing companion breed known as the “royal dog of Madagascar,” and the wire- haired vizsla (pronounced (VEEZ’-shlah), a stalwart Hungarian hunting dog. It’s related to the more widely known vizsla. There are only about 2,000 wirehaired vizslas world- wide, said owner Anton Sagh, whose dog Falko is entered at Westminster. “That’s why I’m trying to promote the breed,” said Sagh, a Hungarian-Canadi- an of the Montreal suburb of Laval. Meanwhile, the Feb. 14 agility contest will feature 330 contestants, up from 225 in last year’s debut. After knee surgery ended her marathon running, Yonda tried dog agility to stay active. It suits both her and her dog, bled as a classroom in prior years, and the school’s spe- cial education classes, forced into one classroom last year, have two classrooms again. But these gains at Long Beach could be short-lived if enrollment continues to soar. Currently, Long Beach’s kindergarten through third grade classes are overload- ed, meaning the number of students per teacher per class exceeds what is stipulated in the District’s contract. Under the contract, kinder- garten through third grade classes should only have 23 students per teacher. Right now, kindergarten has a total 50 students, or 25 students per teacher. Third grade has a total of 49 students, or ap- proximately 24 students per teacher. Though the overloading hasn’t reached drastic pro- portions, yet, and teachers are compensated for the increase, Carper said, “If enrollment does increase and we do nothing, I’m going to have to move somebody again into the staff room or take away space from special education and neither is good.” Great seeing growth Crowding aside, the growth at Long Beach is a great thing, Risner said. She LV FRQ¿GHQW WKH FRPPLWWHH will come up with solutions. “I think that for our dis- trict, the amount of commu- nity support and business support has been evident,” she said. “I feel like we’re creative and innovative enough. I don’t feel there’d be anything we’d come up with that wouldn’t be doable within reason.” And, Carper said, “The thing is, this growth has to stop. It can’t go on forever… Who’s to say? We might have 10 kids move out unexpect- edly.” Still, he added, “I did not expect to grow as much this year as we did.” Dispute: Filing is necessary to preserve Marquis’ appeal rights Continued from Page 1A AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews Lynus, a border collie owned by Authur and Janyce Selkin, from Rhinebeck, N.Y. , runs an agility trail, during a press preview for the 139th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Wednesday. Maggie, a poodle that eager- ly leaped jumps and pranced around poles in a demonstra- tion Wednesday. “It’s a very intricate, complex sport,” said Yonda, RI 5LGJH¿HOG &RQQHFWLFXW “We’re learning all the time.” Organizers noted that for WKH¿UVWWLPHWKHDJLOLW\FRP- petition will coincide with the American Kennel Club’s noncompetitive “Meet the Breeds” event, previously held separately in the fall. standard of justice than Municipal Court. Marquis said Wednesday he would still likely appeal a court rul- ing that recognized Astoria’s ability to assign the DUII cases to Munic- ipal Court. But the district attorney suspects the legal challenge to end soon. Marquis said the state Attorney Josh *HQHUDO¶VRI¿FHZKLFKLVUHSUHVHQW- Marquis ing him against the city, has until a deadline today to ask the Oregon Supreme Court to review an Oregon Court of Appeals ruling last year in favor of Astoria. 7KH¿OLQJZKLFKLVDOVREHLQJEDFNHG¿QDQFLDOO\E\ the Oregon District Attorneys Association, is necessary to preserve Marquis’ appeal rights. But Marquis has said he has no interest in prolonging the legal challenge. The Supreme Court could also decide WKDWWKHOHJDO¿JKWLVPRRWJLYHQWKH&LW\&RXQFLO¶VYRWH Other cities in Clatsop County direct DUII cases to Marquis for prosecution in state Circuit Court, but As- toria has long used its discretion under the law to assign misdemeanor drunken-driving cases to Municipal Court. “I have no interest in pursuing this litigation — both EHFDXVHRIWKHFRVWWRERWKP\RI¿FHWRWKHFLW\WRWKH divisiveness that this has caused — once there is no ques- tion that this issue is resolved,” Marquis said.