Waterford ― Quarterly data released by the police department shows that while larceny arrests and motor vehicle stops are trending up over the last three years, arrests during that time have been going down slightly.

The department posts the data to Facebook and leaves the previous posts up for comparison. Each post includes the numbers of arrests made, motor vehicle stops, larceny arrests, calls for service, car crashes and more over the three-month period.

The most recent post, which contained data from June through August, reported that last month the department made 105 arrests, which was 35 more than it did in July and almost double what it made in June.

The last three years of data from August 2021 to August 2024 shows the three trends over that time.

Chief Marc Balestracci explained what might be contributing to each of those trends, in an email Monday.

He said traffic and theft have been two of the department’s biggest challenges over the years, and said it continues to take steps to improve enforcement.

Traffic stops trending up

Traffic stops have trended upward since August 2021. Last month, police made 606 traffic stops, compared with 247 last August and 400 in August 2021.

Balestracci credited the uptick to now having two full-time traffic officers. Up until recently, the department only had one.

As a temporary boon to traffic enforcement, in January the department had used the majority of a $52,000 state grant to add 106 four-hour traffic enforcement shifts, covering the hourly pay and additional benefits of the officers. Balestracci said all that funding has been used up. The rest of the grant was used to purchase laser and radar units to detect speeders.

In the 2024-2025 budget, the department received three additional officers, bringing the department’s total to 52. With the new officers, the department was able to reassign one of its veteran police officers to full-time traffic duty, and fill that position with one of the new officers, Balestracci said.

Another veteran officer will be reassigned to the traffic unit by the end of 2024, he said, resulting in three full-time traffic officers.

Balestracci said the unit focuses specifically on speeding, impaired driving, texting and driving, passing stopped school buses and other moving violations “which create hazards on Waterford roads.”

He added that the department as a whole is focused on traffic safety, and stops are not done just by the officers specifically assigned to the traffic unit.

Arrests are down

Balestracci said the recent increase in motor vehicle stops has led to officers finding more misdemeanor violations, which he said could be contributing to a slight increase recently in how many arrests the department is making. He said he would need to do more research to confirm that.

In August, the department arrested 104 people, the highest monthly number in at least the last three years.

According to the data, the department in June, July and August arrested 231 people, which was 23 more than the department had in March, April and May. And 33 more than last summer, when the department arrested 198.

Arrests stayed somewhat steady over the period of last August to this past May, then in the summer months saw a big increase, due in large part to the busy August month.

Balestracci explained that the summer months are typically the department’s busiest each year.

From September 2021 to August 2022, the department made an average of 76.9 arrests per month, and from September 2022 to August 2023, it made an average of 77.2 monthly arrests. From September 2023 to August 2024, the monthly arrests declined to 71.8.

Larceny arrests

Larceny arrests over three years are up overall in spite of the closure of numerous stores in the town’s largest retail space, Crystal Mall.

The town still has “many national retailers in town where we see frequent theft,” Balestracci said.

Over this June, July and August, the department made a total of 169 larceny arrests, compared to 101 last summer and 84 in the summer before that.

“We have developed a positive relationship with the stores that see the most theft and encourage those stores to report theft to our department,” Balestracci said.

In addition to the “fine work” conducted by the department’s officers, he praised the community, which he said have helped the department make many larceny arrests. The department frequently uses its Facebook page to help identify shoplifting suspects.

“We have been using social media for many years in an attempt to identify suspects of crime, and our online community has been very helpful,” he said.

d.drainville@theday.com