Mount Vernon Residents Welcome New Police Commander

Mount Vernon police commander, Captain David Moyer, gave his last 'State of the Highway’ speech at the Mount Vernon Citizens Advisory Committee meeting Tuesday night.

Local residents welcomed Mount Vernon Police District station’s new commander, Captain Randy Joyce.  After introducing himself, Joyce went over the projected 2011 police budget and he hopes that police officers will receive a raise after a two-year salary freeze.

"I don't expect to see a lot of change between before me," Joyce said. "Hopefully my understanding of police work and information around the county will determine where resources are needed."

Moyer delivered a comprehensive presentation about crime trends in Mount Vernon over the last year.

"Overall crime is down over a three year period. The bars along the Route One corridor are quiet because of the economy," Moyer said. "People don't have an expendable income. They aren't out there, impaired, making easy targets of themselves."

Moyer explained that as cases are closed, their categorizations often change and the official statistics will be released by summer.

"Larceny is the most widespread crime and the most preventable kind. If we could cut out of all of the electronics stolen from cars, we'd cut it way down," Moyer said. "Our vehicle thefts are down. I've asked myself, is it not cool to steal cars anymore? I've talked to young parolees and they just don't seem interested as much."

Moyer reported that in 2010 46,040 calls for police service were made, 13,960 incident reports were written and 4,966 arrests were made in the Mount Vernon area.  One of the , with over 1,700 cases last year or an average of 142 cases a month.

"On a lot of the domestic assaults, we check back with the victim to see what else we can do," Moyer said. "There are attorney's specifically working on domestic violence cases and reporting conviction rates."

Moyer also informed citizens about I-Leads, a new electronic system for reporting incident, arrests, and accident reports. The system is designed to document police contact in the field. Police personal have spent 40 hours learning the system over a period of 15 weeks.

Lt. Mike Wall presented officer Kenyatta Momon with the Officer of the Month Award for his narcotic arrests in February and his  handling of a recent dangerous call. A former Marine, Officer Momon noticed a suspect running into the back of the house at a routine hit-and-run call and made the decision to follow him.

"He decided to go around the back of the residence. He saw the suspect obtaining a weapon, a gun, and Momon shouted a warning to the officers still up front," Wall said. "Officer Momon's quick actions kept things from really going wrong."

Officer Greg Kotteman from the crime prevention office ended the meeting with one last warning to residents.

"Spring means more people are going to be outside," Kotteman said. "Larceny's will be going up. Lock up those electronics and we can really cut down on theft."

Officers and attendees spent the remaining of the meeting getting to know Captain Joyce and enjoying Captain Moyer's farewell cake.