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
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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.
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to report nearly double the
details of a crime, which will
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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
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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
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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-
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“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
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meeting is scheduled for 4:30
p.m. Jan. 29 at the District
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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“We’re learning all the time.”
Organizers noted that for
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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divisiveness that this has caused — once there is no ques-
tion that this issue is resolved,” Marquis said.