Post by wvhsparent on Mar 19, 2007 7:59:47 GMT -6
School police reports on rise
By Melissa Jenco
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Monday, March 19, 2007
The number of incidents resulting in police reports at Naperville high schools is on the rise.
The main campuses of Neuqua Valley, Naperville North and Naperville Central high schools generated an average of 58 more incident reports in 2006 than the previous year, according to statistics compiled by Naperville police.
School and police officials attribute the increase to a rise in thefts, growing enrollment and more aggressive reporting of incidents.
The total number of police incidents at Neuqua Valley High School’s main campus rose to 265 during the last calendar year, up from 181 in 2005. Its gold campus, which serves freshmen, had 66 incidents, up from 33.
At Naperville North, there were 274 incidents last year and 222 the previous year. Naperville Central’s figures rose to 209 last year from 171.
Tom Paulsen, associate superintendent for Naperville Unit District 203, said the statistics aren’t surprising.
“You think about it and each of those schools have 3,000 students plus staff, plus people who come in there every day … it’s a whirlwind of activity,” he said.
The statistics include crimes, non-crimes such as being locked out of a car, traffic-related incidents and parking-related incidents.
The reports also include any incidents occurring at or just outside the school throughout the year, whether they involve students or not. Some of the reports, for example, involve traffic tickets written just outside a school that might not involve students, or problems occurring during the summer or weekends when other community groups are on the property.
Nevertheless, both Central and Neuqua officials said they have been struggling with thefts in locker rooms. With more students carrying MP3 players and cell phones, there are now more valuable goods to steal.
“The more electronic devices an individual can have and the more compact those devices become, the easier they are to steal if not properly monitored and secured,” said Lt. John Gustin, commander of youth and community services for Naperville police. “It doesn’t matter whether that’s at an office or a grocery store or a school.”
Central Principal Jim Caudill said about 97 MP3 players disappeared last year at Central.
Neuqua and Central are limiting the times and places students can carry and use MP3 players and talking to students about securing their belongings. Central also is limiting access to locker rooms.
Naperville North Principal Ross Truemper said he has not seen the statistics but doesn’t believe the overall incident level is rising at North.
The school has experienced more fights than usual this year — the number nearly doubled during the first three months of school compared to the same period the previous year — but Gustin said he doesn’t believe that significantly affected the statistics because there were few battery calls to police.
School officials also say increased enrollment might play a part in the increase.
“I don’t know if it (the police incident figures) necessarily means a trend in huge amounts of misbehavior,” Paulsen said. “It is up, but our student population has been going up, too, during the same period.”
Neuqua has experienced the biggest jump in enrollment — several hundred students at a time — while growth at North and especially Central has been relatively small.
A third factor, some say, could be that incidents that might not have been reported in the past are now becoming part of police records.
“I don’t know if there’s a significant difference in incidents but maybe a difference in the approach in what we’re engaging the police in,” Truemper said. “There’s some latitude there in what becomes a police incident or not.”
For instance, Gustin said some of the theft reports are actually just lost items that previously would have merely generated an internal report.
“Now maybe we’re taking that report as a theft because when we find that phone on someone else’s person or in a backpack we now have to backtrack and initiate a theft report where no theft report had been initiated before.”
Mark Truckenbrod, associate principal at Neuqua, said the numbers can be misleading because his school’s 265 incidents last year don’t mean that many different students were causing trouble.
He estimated that about 40 percent of the interactions with police involve repeat offenders.
“So if you look at the student body, it’s a small number of kids interacting with the police in an investigation,” Truckenbrod said. “With a student population of over 4,200, we’re like a small town. In one year it’s a pretty small number of kids in a large community that are garnering the attention of the police in the first place.”
Administrators said they are glad to have resource officers, who are sworn police officers, in their schools to provide a sense of safety and also give students a familiar, trustworthy figure to turn to.
“Obviously it’s a great resource for us,” Truemper said. “We know we have an officer in the building who can help with significant investigations … and they’re great peacemakers. They work with students to settle things down and help students. Students feel like if they’re in trouble, an officer is right there to advise them.”
No WVHS Data as it is APD.....aldermankeith if you are there...can you get that info?
By Melissa Jenco
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Monday, March 19, 2007
The number of incidents resulting in police reports at Naperville high schools is on the rise.
The main campuses of Neuqua Valley, Naperville North and Naperville Central high schools generated an average of 58 more incident reports in 2006 than the previous year, according to statistics compiled by Naperville police.
School and police officials attribute the increase to a rise in thefts, growing enrollment and more aggressive reporting of incidents.
The total number of police incidents at Neuqua Valley High School’s main campus rose to 265 during the last calendar year, up from 181 in 2005. Its gold campus, which serves freshmen, had 66 incidents, up from 33.
At Naperville North, there were 274 incidents last year and 222 the previous year. Naperville Central’s figures rose to 209 last year from 171.
Tom Paulsen, associate superintendent for Naperville Unit District 203, said the statistics aren’t surprising.
“You think about it and each of those schools have 3,000 students plus staff, plus people who come in there every day … it’s a whirlwind of activity,” he said.
The statistics include crimes, non-crimes such as being locked out of a car, traffic-related incidents and parking-related incidents.
The reports also include any incidents occurring at or just outside the school throughout the year, whether they involve students or not. Some of the reports, for example, involve traffic tickets written just outside a school that might not involve students, or problems occurring during the summer or weekends when other community groups are on the property.
Nevertheless, both Central and Neuqua officials said they have been struggling with thefts in locker rooms. With more students carrying MP3 players and cell phones, there are now more valuable goods to steal.
“The more electronic devices an individual can have and the more compact those devices become, the easier they are to steal if not properly monitored and secured,” said Lt. John Gustin, commander of youth and community services for Naperville police. “It doesn’t matter whether that’s at an office or a grocery store or a school.”
Central Principal Jim Caudill said about 97 MP3 players disappeared last year at Central.
Neuqua and Central are limiting the times and places students can carry and use MP3 players and talking to students about securing their belongings. Central also is limiting access to locker rooms.
Naperville North Principal Ross Truemper said he has not seen the statistics but doesn’t believe the overall incident level is rising at North.
The school has experienced more fights than usual this year — the number nearly doubled during the first three months of school compared to the same period the previous year — but Gustin said he doesn’t believe that significantly affected the statistics because there were few battery calls to police.
School officials also say increased enrollment might play a part in the increase.
“I don’t know if it (the police incident figures) necessarily means a trend in huge amounts of misbehavior,” Paulsen said. “It is up, but our student population has been going up, too, during the same period.”
Neuqua has experienced the biggest jump in enrollment — several hundred students at a time — while growth at North and especially Central has been relatively small.
A third factor, some say, could be that incidents that might not have been reported in the past are now becoming part of police records.
“I don’t know if there’s a significant difference in incidents but maybe a difference in the approach in what we’re engaging the police in,” Truemper said. “There’s some latitude there in what becomes a police incident or not.”
For instance, Gustin said some of the theft reports are actually just lost items that previously would have merely generated an internal report.
“Now maybe we’re taking that report as a theft because when we find that phone on someone else’s person or in a backpack we now have to backtrack and initiate a theft report where no theft report had been initiated before.”
Mark Truckenbrod, associate principal at Neuqua, said the numbers can be misleading because his school’s 265 incidents last year don’t mean that many different students were causing trouble.
He estimated that about 40 percent of the interactions with police involve repeat offenders.
“So if you look at the student body, it’s a small number of kids interacting with the police in an investigation,” Truckenbrod said. “With a student population of over 4,200, we’re like a small town. In one year it’s a pretty small number of kids in a large community that are garnering the attention of the police in the first place.”
Administrators said they are glad to have resource officers, who are sworn police officers, in their schools to provide a sense of safety and also give students a familiar, trustworthy figure to turn to.
“Obviously it’s a great resource for us,” Truemper said. “We know we have an officer in the building who can help with significant investigations … and they’re great peacemakers. They work with students to settle things down and help students. Students feel like if they’re in trouble, an officer is right there to advise them.”
No WVHS Data as it is APD.....aldermankeith if you are there...can you get that info?