While Crime Rate is Down, Criminal Attitude is Up

In looking back over 15 years of crime rates in Wauwatosa, including the first half of this year, the only sure conclusion one can draw is that not that much has changed.

As pointed out , there has been a general decline in the total number of offenses since 2001, from a high of 2,633 then to a low of 1,966 in 2008, with 2,014 last year. Going back further, that's also lower than 1997, when 2,342 offenses were logged.

But in discussing those figures, Wauwatosa Police Capt. Jeff Sutter said that to understand the real difference in crime in our city today from crime in the past, you'd have to go back somewhat further yet — and to an extent, you'd have to be a cop.

The change isn't in the number of crimes. It's only partly in the types of crimes. The big change is in the criminals themselves, and their view of the great game of cops and robbers.

"When I came here in January 1985, we had fewer dangerous crimes," Sutter said. "We didn't see a lot of gun calls. We do now.

"We'd all be really surprised" by a dispatch involving a firearm, Sutter said. "We'd all go. Back then, there would be detectives running down the halls.

"Now, we send three officers. I would never say it's mundane or routine, but it's expected. It's no longer a surprise.

"It doesn't happen evey day, but we know there are going to be calls involving guns, possibly any call, any day."

Sutter said Wauwatosa police would take a wait and see attitude toward Wisconsin's new concealed carry law, but he did not expect it have much effect on day-to-day policing.

Fighting crime when crime fights back

More gun crimes are one thing that has made police work more dangerous and challenging, but it isn't the only thing.

"When I started," Sutter said, "nobody resisted arrest.

"Now, everybody does. You're almost looked down on if you don't.

"Everybody wants to fight, everybody wants to resist."

Sutter said he understood that a suspect might feel like taking any chance in the hope of escape, but the odds are long against success.

"I have this whole tool belt I can use," Sutter said.

Police officers today are better trained and better equipped to handle resistance and the possibility of facing firearms. They have Kevlar body armor and Tasers, for instance, in addition to the classic pistol and baton. They are extensively trained in techniques to "decentralize" a suspect who resists — meaning to quickly end resistance by getting a suspect face down on the ground and immobilized.

Charges add up when situations escalate

The net result for most criminals who resist arrest is simply to add more serious charges than they would otherwise have faced. Resisting arrest in and of itself is a more serious charge than many of the crimes it is associated with.

In a recent example, involving a store security officer rather than a police officer, a woman who was stopped for retail theft at resisted strenuously and ended up biting the man severely.

Instead of a municipal citation for theft, which would have involved a fine of a couple hundred dollars and no jail time, she ended up being charged with resisting arrest and battery, and off she went to the county lockup.

In another example, a man being held for questioning in an unlawful entry resisted being handcuffed while at the police station, in a holding cell, and kicked an officer hard enough to earn himself a charge of battery to a police officer and rapid transit downtown.

On the streets, suspects fight or flee, or flee and then fight, with predictable regularity.

If overall crime rates are down somewhat, that hasn't made being a police officer any easier, but perhaps a tougher job does make for better police officers.

"I am pleased with our clearance rate," Sutter said, referring to the percentage of crimes in which a suspect is charged. "On a regular basis it's higher than the national and state norms.

"But I don't think it's ever been good to credit the police when crime is low — or to blame them when crime is high. There are just too many variables."