POUGHKEEPSIE – The city’s common council brought City of Poughkeepsie Police Chief Tom Pape and Captain Rich Wilson to a public hearing on Monday to discuss what the council considers a “recent increase in criminal activity in the City of Poughkeepsie.” Chief Pape disputes the claim and came to the meeting with data to substantiate his argument.
For instance, the police responded to five rapes in 2022, compared to 10 in 2021. Robberies are also down. In 2021 there were 39 compared to 25 this year. Pape continued to provide data on the “Part 1” crimes, pointing out that his department handled 142 aggravated assault cases in 2021 compared to 91 this year Burglaries are also down from the 73 reported last year. In 2022, Pape’s department responded to 57 burglaries. Larcenies are down dramatically. In 2021, officers responded to 505 crimes of larceny compared to 400 this year.
Property crimes, considered non-violent have risen in 2022 when compared to 2021. Last year there were 321 property crimes while the department has responded to 487 this year.
When asked directly if there was an increase in criminal activity recently, Chief Pape told Mid-Hudson News crime has decreased from 2021 to 2022. “We’ve seen a decrease in crime, in fact, for the past 10 years we have had a marked decrease in all of our “Part 1″ (violent) crimes.”
The chief noted that his department has managed to keep crime down while addressing a personnel shortage. “We’re budgeted for 92 officers and, try as we may to get to that number, we haven’t made it. We went through this past summer with 76 able-bodied officers on the street.”
Pape expects the manpower shortage to continue, given the number of officers that are eligible to retire in the near future.
