PRINCETON: Reports shows jump in burglaries in the borough

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   The number of burglaries has more the doubled in Princeton Borough during the first half of 2012, the police department reported.
   The finding was contained in the June report that police Chief David J. Dudeck provided the Borough Council. Chief Dudeck was on vacation last week.
   The 34-page document, which the governing body voted to accept Tuesday, covers the full range of police activity for the month and the year and a comparison to 2011. Through June, the borough had 62 burglaries compared to 28 during the same six-month period last month. The department said this week that the number includes burglaries to motor vehicles.
   That factor is key because the classification of burglaries is different in the annual Uniform Crime Report, which does not count a burglary to a car as a burglary. Chief Dudeck’s report shows the burglary total, minus motor vehicle burglaries, at 39.Councilwoman Jo Butler, addressing the increase in burglaries, said Wednesday that the eastern end of town had a crime wave that police dealt with.
   As for other crimes, the borough had no reported arsons, rapes or homicides through June.
   There have been 25 assaults, five robberies, including attempts, and 199 thefts. In a statistical coincidence, the department had the same number of thefts at this time last year.
   Aside from providing crime totals, the report showed that police are issuing fewer tickets than they did this time a year ago.
   In the first six months of 2012, the department handed out 2,051 motor vehicle summonses, including 101 tickets for motorists caught using a cell phone. That compares to 2,372 for the same period last year.
   Ms. Butler offered a possible explanation for the drop-off in tickets. She said it might be due to the work police are putting in toward merging the two Princeton police departments in time for the consolidation starting in January.
   ”That might have something to do with it,” she said in a phone interview.