When compared with the other 28 cities in Texas with populations of 50,000 to 100,000 residents, Georgetown ranks after Flower Mound as the second-safest city.
In fact, the Texas Department of Public Safety’s 2013 Crime in Texas Report shows that less than 2 percent of the total 64,203 crimes that occurred in these cities took place in Georgetown, yet the city’s Police Department still strives for a safer city.
“As a chief you want to look at these numbers and think, ‘Where can we impact this?’” Georgetown Police Chief Wayne Nero said. “How can we bring these numbers down? That’s what’s important to us.”
In April the Police Department will take a step toward decreasing the number of crimes committed by launching a deployment unit.
“That’s one of the big things we’re doing this year,” Assistant Police Chief Cory Tchida said. “It’s a unit that can address specific issues, problems [and] concerns that are outside of the realm of regular patrol work,” he said.
The unit’s staff will be able to detach from all other responsibilities to solve issues—whether drug-, traffic- or neighborhood-related—and Nero said this unit will be similar to a street crimes unit.
“This is an area that many other units are going to be born from because we don’t have a full-time need for all of those capabilities right now, but we do have a need,” Nero said. “As a chief I can’t wait for it to be a compelling need before we start to create the capability.”
Mayor Dale Ross said the department will be able to use the unit to identify smaller issues in the city before they can become major problems.
“[The unit] will allow us to use analytics to be even more proactive and manage our crime rate even further,” Ross said.
Tchida said the unit was funded through the city’s 2014–15 fiscal year budget and will begin with three new officers and a sergeant.
One example of the unit’s work could be in parking lots where there have been reported car burglaries, he said.
“We’ll have patrol officers do extra patrols of this area that’s been getting hit, but the reality is that those patrol officers can only stay there until they get called [somewhere else],” Tchida said.
Deployment unit officers will be able spend time in targeted areas without being called away.
Nero said this unit is just the first step in his plans for the department.
“There’s going to be a lot of specialized capabilities that have to be built over the next several years—because the community is going to grow, and things are going to change—whether it’s crime analysis or more traffic enforcement and commercial motor vehicle enforcement,” he said. “There’s all [of] these extra things that have to occur, and with staffing we don’t always have time to be proactive.”
Digital direction
The new Public Safety Operations and Training Center, which opened in February at 3500 D.B. Wood Road, could also house the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, a part of the Texas Attorney General’s Office Cyber Crimes Unit. The department is negotiating an agreement with the office to bring about 20 staff members to Georgetown.
The agreement would allow the task force to have space in the PSOTC. In addition, the task force would provide computer forensic services for GPD cases, Nero said.
“Right now we do not have the capacity to do [computer forensics]. Most cases, if we can make the case without that, we just don’t do it or we send the case to [the Department of Public Safety] or Round Rock provided they have the time,” Nero told City Council in September. “Sometimes the turnaround is very quick; other times it can take a while, depending on their caseload.”
Although Ross said there are not a lot of cyber crimes in the city, he supports the decision to stay ahead of any issues that could arise.
“We’re being safe and proactive because as more and more crimes are committed using technology—we want to be on the forefront of that,” Ross said.
The Cyber Crimes Unit prioritizes Internet stalking, forensics and hacking and would be able to train Georgetown officers.
“This is a unit that does really good work. … [And] they will assist us with all of our cyber crime and forensic investigations and assist us in training our staff to be self-sufficient in those areas,” Tchida said.
Technology has been a continued focus of growth for the Police Department. In 2013 it began using PublicEngines software, which allows the department to analyze crime data and identify trends.
Regularly updated crime maps generated by the software are available to the public and can be accessed through the CityConnect smartphone app or online at www.crimereports.com.
