The Southampton Town Police Department has seen a decline in crime over the past eight years.

Although crime had declined through out America since the mid 1990’s the township did not see

a steep decline until 2010. The population after September 11, 2001 grew astronomically from

people fleeing New York City for an area that would not be targeted by terrorists. With the

growth in Manhattanites leaving New York building increased and the need for housing grew

significantly. Secondly there was an enormous growth in immigrant population with a growth of

67% in one specific area of the township.

From the years of 2000 to 2009 we saw an overall increase in crime rates. Specific crimes of

robbery, burglary, domestic violence, drug crimes, and sexual assaults increased drastically

during those years. The rate from 2002 to 2003 saw a rise in robberies of 27%, burglary 40%,

domestic violence crimes 67% and sexual assaults 78%, drug crimes increased 87%. These

numbers were staggering but we believe that that was due to the population boom and the lack of

available resources such as victim services, domestic violence shelters, outreach programs, and

educational services for victims, resources for offenders such as anger management classes,

rehabilitation services for drug and alcohol addiction. There was a lack of available jobs causing

day laborers to congregate at locations making them targets for robberies and extortion from

gangs. On Friday’s laborers were victims of robberies because they were paid by cash and

criminals knew this, targeting them on Friday evening. Sexual crimes increased in an

astronomical level due to the incoming population with sex crimes against children within the

family. We continue to this date to be the highest in the state with sexual assaults against

familial sex crimes.

2010 to 2015 we started to see a decline in overall crime. We could not explain exactly why this

was occurring, but we did see a rise in conviction rates along with stiffer sentences for offenders

especially repeat offenders.

In 2016 to present we have set up a more multi-pronged approach to combating crime as well as

evidence-based crime analysis and placing officers in those areas to combat specific crimes.

During this period, we have based crime fighting on more analytics and started targeting crime in

a more multi-faceted approach. We are addressing community issues through a community and

problem oriented policing approach. There are ways to address minor crimes using a community

approach which will cut the ability for a larger problem to have an opportunity to grow to larger

problems. From 2016 to 2019 we saw a decline in sex crimes of 45%. With several high-profile

cases and the information that we are arresting people and getting large jail sentences as well as

putting an educational component with victim services, information is reaching the intended

targets. Felony Assaults saw a drop of 48% in the past three years. We believe that working

with the Town and placing cameras in areas of concern, better lighting we have eliminated the

opportunity to commit these crimes and educating through community talks on how to keep safe

has helped in turning potential victims in to citizens who are aware. Residential burglaries are

down 77% and commercial burglaries are down 60% which are attributed to messaging by the

department on burglar proofing your home or providing a crime prevention survey of both

residences and commercial establishments in target hardening. During the years of 2016-2019

overall serious crimes have been reduced in the Township by 44%. We did start seeing a decline

in serious crimes in 2010, but not as significant until 2016. We find this is due to using analytics

and placing officers in the most needed areas and flooding those locations with extra officers and

investigators.
Using the problem oriented policing model has enabled us to address environmental situations in

areas and change them through working with the community and town to clean up areas, change

environmental situations such as addressing abandoned housing by working with owners to

change those situations that allow for criminal activity within, street lighting, working with

businesses in ways to keep their businesses safe and doing community educational lectures in

ways to protect themselves and homes. Working with the district attorney’s office to seek longer

prison terms for offenders with serious crimes and federal law enforcement agencies or state

agencies to seek enhanced prosecutions for certain crimes we have been successful in putting

repeat or serious offenders away for longer periods of time. Establishing ways to work with

added resources and services to help offenders get back into society and be a productive member

has also aided in the crime decline.

Since January 2020 we are seeing crime increase by 27% since February of the new year. New

reforms have taken hold and we are seeing repeat offenders commit crimes within a few days of

being arrested due to the release of bail reform. Offenders who commit a Burglary, a crime

considered a violent felony offender are being released on no bail the very next day of being

arrested. We believe this trend will continue without a repeal of the many reforms put in place

through the governor and state legislature.