SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2015
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
COMMUNITY
Umatilla crime numbers down in 2014
Patrol officer
vacancies
contributed to some
of the declines
BY SEAN HART
HERMISTON HERALD
Fewer criminal incidents
were recorded in Umatilla
in 2014 compared with re-
cent years, but fewer patrol
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contributed to some of the
decline.
Police Chief Darla Huxel
said the Umatilla Police De-
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in the last half of 2014 and
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which reduced the number of
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side agency assists.
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pretty consistent,” she said.
“Towards the second part of
the year, we were down staff.
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ple coming on, so some of the
numbers may be a little lower
(than normal). The criminal
cases are pretty consistent,
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There were 492 total traf-
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egories declined. Insurance
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Huxel said some criminal
categories were also affected
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Outside agency assists fell
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dents fell from 146 to 65, and
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WR
“Pretty much, last year,
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minimums,” she said. “At
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that’s almost half your patrol
force, so we struggled.”
UPD is comprised of the
chief, a lieutenant, a sergeant,
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total criminal cases fell from
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2014, but some of the decline
was not caused by a reduction
of staff.
Assaults were reduced by
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SEAN HART PHOTO
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at several monitors at the Umatilla Police Department Thursday. Huxel said incident numbers
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nature of the offender may
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what led to the other declines.
Some criminal reports in-
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criminal mischief was up
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authorized entry of a motor
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24 and unauthorized use of a
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WR
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cies in our area, unauthorized
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cars and going out and start-
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them running. From what I
understand, pretty much the
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tilla County saw an increase
in car thefts, so we’re not an
anomaly by any stretch of the
imagination.”
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pleased with what the depart-
ment accomplished with the
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year.
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numbers,” she said. “I would
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stuff that would address some
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always said that we will be
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DUI arrests because of the
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only going to get worse now.
We will be doing more train-
ing to address that. When I’m
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licing, that’s a number that I
hope will go up, not go down.
Numbers can show a couple
different things.”
Huxel said the depart-
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said, recently completed the
police academy and is com-
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at the academy. She said the
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months, but the department
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by this summer.
Huxel said the department
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targeted enforcement, such as
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patrols.
Because of the staff re-
ductions, UPD suspended
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tion And Training program
in the schools beginning in
the fall, but Huxel said she
hopes to re-staff that again
soon.
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that’s where we need to
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a chance to be in the schools
because neither the school nor
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do the best we can by getting
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HERMISTON HERALD
dent Marisol Santa Cruz said HU VWXGHQWV ZKDW NLQGQHVV DW
0F1DU\+HLJKWV(OHPHQ- Friday.
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tary School students learned
In addition to doing the
“We wanted to show
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WKH\VSHQWWKLVZHHNFRPSOHW- and teachers, some older QHUVWREHPRUHNLQGWRSHR-
ing acts that made other peo-
ple feel good.
The students spent all this
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Great Kindness Challenge,”
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from a list of 50 acts that in-
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friend.” They were then en-
couraged to complete some
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MAEGAN MURRAY PHOTO
teacher as one of the acts of
NLQGQHVV VKH SHUIRUPHG WKLV McNary Heights Elementary School students lead their school
ZHHN )RXUWKJUDGHU (PLOLR in the Pledge of Allegiance Friday morning after being named
Jaimez said he helped his the character trait students of the week for following rules,
physical education teach- displaying good behavior and being kind to others
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36TH ANNUAL
Additionally, students had
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during lunch and recess that
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Saturday, March 7th • 5:30pm
another and teachers. During
Auction starts at 7:00pm
one recess, students swarmed
the table out on the play-
Hermiston Community Center
ground in an effort to write
For table reservations,
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call Paul 541-701-4518 or for
“It was chaos. It was so
more info., call Joe 541-567-5811
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$
Everyone 21 years & over welcome.
class Vice President Taylor
on
per pers
All proceeds will assist Hermiston High
Durfey said laughing.
School boys and girl athletic programs.
What was especially great
This ad generously donated by
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dents said, was that no awards
RD OFFUTT
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a proud community supporter
HERMISTONSPORTSBOOSTERS . COM
BY MAEGAN MURRAY
STEAK FEED & AUCTION
40
INSURANCE
Bisnett Insurance is proud
to announce
J OE Y OUNG
is now part of the Bisnett
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Joe has over 10 years of
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by McNary Heights Vice
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the student body at the school.
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HPDLO LQYLWLQJ KLP WR SDUWLF-
ipate in a webinar about the
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heard. He then presented the
idea to the student council,
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successful,” Cotterell said. “I
saw a lot of students start the
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doing things for others. We
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the intrinsic and really saw
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ness come to life.”
In particular, Cotterell said
he saw a lot more smiles on
students’ faces as they were
challenged to smile at people
they saw at school.
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eryone’s list because I am
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Cotterell said it will be fun
to analyze all the data collect-
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dents completed school-wide
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Many students said they
found the experience of being
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said they will also continue
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of an impact it has on others.
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