Police chief reports steady call volume, translation technology trials and several major arrests

Dickinson Police Chief Tony Ciani presented the department's fourth-quarter activity report on Feb. 4, reporting steady call volumes, a pilot of translation technology and several notable criminal cases handled by detectives.

Ciani told commissioners dispatch has averaged roughly 759 911 emergency calls and about 3,970 non-emergency phone calls over the prior three months, with dispatch initiating roughly 989 outbound telephone contacts. The department responded to an average of 2,168 calls for service during the quarter. Traffic stops averaged 325 per month, producing about 52 citations and 45 warnings on average; accidents averaged about 69 per month with about four injury accidents monthly. The department averaged about 57 arrests per month during the quarter, including roughly 14 felony arrests monthly.

Investigators averaged 67 new cases per month and closed about 48 per month, with criminal investigators carrying a typical caseload of about 28 active cases. Ciani listed several significant arrests and investigations during the period, including multiple out-of-state extraditions and local felony arrests. He said detectives interrupted a wire-transfer fraud and recovered more than $110,000 of funds before final transfer in one case and referred another large-loss case (about $300,000) to Homeland Security because of national cross-jurisdictional elements.

Ciani and others described the department's efforts to address language barriers. He said the department obtained a grant to buy translation earbuds for patrol and that the Axon body camera provider is integrating translation services that may be available with forthcoming body-camera upgrades. For the near term, officers sometimes use phone-based translation services such as Google Translate and LanguageLine.

Training during the quarter totaled about 471 hours (roughly 157 hours per month). Records activity included fingerprinting and processing warrants and summonses; the animal shelter averaged about 24 calls for service and impounded an average of 77 animals with more than 86% returned, rescued or adopted. School resource officers supported multiple reports and summonses across Dickinson public schools. The department also reported three patrol recruits graduating from the academy in December and three recent hires.

The commission did not take formal action on the report; it was accepted for the record.

Provenance: Chief Ciani presented these statistics and described translation pilots during the public safety police report segment of the meeting.