Politics & Government

Borough Police Chief Issues 2011 Report

Hellertown police chief Robert Shupp highlighted his end-of-year report in front of Hellertown Borough Council members and the public on Jan. 17.

The year 2011 will most likely be remembered as an eventful one for the Hellertown Police Department.

On Jan. 17, in front of Borough Council, police chief Robert Shupp read highlights from his 2011 end-of-year report and discussed other recent police-related news.

Shupp said the department received more than 5,800 calls in 2011 and investigated 332 crimes that resulted in arrests. There was a slight increase in domestic violence arrests last year, which he said might be attributable to the poor state of the economy.

Find out what's happening in Hellertown-Lower Sauconwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

He noted that the department's case closure rate for the year was above 80 percent, which he called "outstanding." The national average case closure rate among police departments is just 47 percent, he said.

Shupp also highlighted the fact that the department's average response time to incidents in 2011 was less than three minutes, which he said is less than the national average.

Find out what's happening in Hellertown-Lower Sauconwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Response times remained low in spite of an increase in traffic in Hellertown, which he said "appears to be a yearly thing."

One of the most significant cases officers worked on in 2011 resulted in the , Shupp said.

"(The bust) was a culmination of many, many months (and) many man hours of work," he told council.

That same month, , who .

Shupp added that "."

Other department specific highlights in 2011 included: participation in the ; delivery of a presentation about detecting fraud and identity theft at ; delivery of at the ; ; the purchase and , which Shupp said replaced guns that had been in use since 1999; and , which are now carried by borough officers.

Although a Taser has not yet been fired in the line of duty by a borough officer, Shupp said he's seen how impactful simply displaying the device can be.

"We have pulled them out," he told council, adding that unruly individuals typically become compliant once they see the Taser.

Shupp concluded his update on the end-of-year report by announcing to council that the department-led will resume its regular meeting schedule later this winter.

The group will be led by Officer Tim Piotrowski, who has stepped in to fill the shoes of . DeLeone announced in November that he would be stepping down as leader of the group, which meets on a bimonthly basis at Borough Hall.


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