BY TIMOTHY LAROCHE
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CLAREMONT — With staffing levels rebounding at the Claremont Police Department, officials say that officers have seen an uptick in arrests for drunken driving.
When police staffing hit an all-time low in June 2017, Police Chief Mark Chase said, much of the department’s efforts shifted from proactive law enforcement initiatives to reactive enforcement – using sparse resources to respond to calls rather than patrol.
But with staffing levels climbing back to near full-capacity, officers have more leeway to enforce traffic violations in hopes of preventing accidents before they occur.
“There’s hardly anyone in this community that isn’t affected by a DWI in some way,” Chase said of fatalities and injuries as a result of DWI crashes. “That tells you that this problem is still there… my goal is to lessen its effects.”
The increased enforcement efforts are reflected in police logs and through increased police visibility on the roadways. So far this year, the department has made 11 arrests for driving while intoxicated, nearly doubling the six arrests made by this time last year. The counts do not represent convictions.
During that same time period, the population of Claremont remained steady at just under 13,400 people, according to US census projections.
Although Chase said that exact counts are difficult, a quick overview police records came up with about 62 driving while intoxicated arrests in 2017. With about 685 total arrests for all crimes in that time period – driving while intoxicated charges are seen in nearly 10 percent of the department’s arrests.
“We’ll continue our focus on making sure everyone gets home safely,” Chase said.
The department employs 22 officers currently, falling short of its budgeted 25-officer capacity. But staffing has seen a steady rise from mid-June 2017 when the department had 11 officers on patrol.
The short-staffing triggered an emergency clause in the department’s contracts, allowing officers to be scheduled outside of their contractual hours. For six weeks last summer, the department used the clause to stabilize its shifts, with department administrators working several patrol shifts each week.
Chase said in an interview last month that he expects staffing to return to full-capacity by fall 2018. By then, the department will also be bolstered by the addition of a K9 officer.
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