'More cops, less crime'

'More cops, less crime'

Lewis and Clark County Deputy Sheriff Cpl. Robert Rivera looked at Lincoln crime statistics for 2021 during the Feb. 4 Government Day meeting. His stats showed an increase in arrests, but an otherwise relatively average year for here.

Rivera said there were a total of 1352 calls for service in the Lincoln area last year. Of those, deputies were the primary responding officers on 686 calls, which led to 87 cases or investigations. Deputies also conducted 191 traffic stops and caught eight DUIs.

Overall, there were just 33 "quality of life" crimes in the area, including six thefts, five burglaries, two stolen vehicles, three cases of trespass, four instances of criminal mischief and six assaults.

Rivera, who has served in Lincoln since 2019, noted the controversy surrounding defunding the police and said experience has shown that "more cops mean less crime and less cops mean more crime."

He backed up his assertion with the numbers from the last six years in Lincoln.

"As a Sheriff's Office, how do we police a community like Lincoln with one cop?" He asked. "That's something I thought about before I took the position as Lincolns deputy."

Rivera said he listened to the community and heard a lot of rumors, but the biggest complaints involved traffic.

"Traffic on Highway 200, traffic in our neighborhoods and traffic on our roads; people speeding too fast and running stop signs, especially semis that like to come blowing through town," he said. "I see it a lot on my days off and not as much when I'm sitting in my patrol car."

When he began here, Rivera worked with the other north deputies in Wolf Creek and Augusta, as well as the resident Highway Patrol trooper,

He said they had four officers that year who, at any point, were showing the "cherries and berries" on main street and on Highway 200. They hit traffic violations hard, and deputies racked up 334 traffic stops and seven DUIs

The overall results supported the "Broken Windows" theory of policing, which focuses on busting minor crimes to reduce major crimes. Rivera said the visible focus on traffic in 2019, led to fewer major crimes like burglaries, trespassing and thefts in the area.

Overall, deputies saw just 64 investigations, including just 19 "quality of life" crimes such as thefts, burglaries, assaults or disorderly conduct that year.

In 2020, with the loss of a local MHP trooper, the impacts of COVID-19 and other issues, there was less visible law enforcement in Lincoln and numbers began to creep back up.

"The more we're visible, the less crime happens, and that's what these statistics show," Rivera said.

Surprisingly Rivera has found that despite rumors of a drug problem in Lincoln, drug crimes are uncommon here compared to Helena and other parts of the county.

"Lincoln has drugs. It's a problem we're always combatting, but when you look at the cases for drugs... each year has zero or one case," he said.

One area that has seen a steady increase are the instances of 911 hang-ups.

Those increased from zero in 2016 to 39 in 2018 and skyrocketed to 137 last year.

Rivera said the increases correlate to the increased prevalence of touch screen phones after 2016. The explosion in 911 hang-ups came after 2019, when iPhones introduced a shortcut to dial 911.

Lincoln Fire Chief Zach Muse also noted that many parents also give their old, deactivated phones to their kids to play with, without realizing they can still be used to alert the 911 system.

Rivera, who has served as Lincoln's resident deputy since 2019, also announced he will be making the move back to Helena in May, where he will serve as a DARE officer and lake-area deputy for the Sheriff's Office.

"You will still see me up here doing DARE at the Lincoln School system. Other than that, there will be a new Lincoln deputy who will be coming up here this summer," he said.

He said they will transition a new deputy into the position here, so his departure won't cause break in coverage for Lincoln.

With the addition of a new MHP trooper posted to Lincoln and the prospect of the return to a full complement of north deputies this year, Rivera expects to see crime in Lincoln drop again.