Upper Macungie Crime Fell About 20 Percent Last Year

Crime in fell by about 20 percent last year and Chief Michael Weiser said existing community policing efforts and programs will continue throughout this year.

Weiser spoke with about 60 people at the township's meeting room Feb. 17, addressing the Upper Macungie Crime Watch program and its results.

"It was a good year," Weiser said. "We did have some crime in the businesses. Hotels and motels got hit and we got hit pretty heavily at the Amazon.com site."

Five Upper Macungie hotels and motels were robbed during a spree of 27 such crimes throughout Lehigh and Northampton counties last summer. That seige ended the suspect's capture in Sept., 2010.

Weiser said Berks-Lehigh Police responded to 8,365 calls throughout the Upper Macungie area last year. Reponses to burglar alarms, weighing in a 1,155, were the highest number of those calls.

"Vandalism was up a little in the developments," Weiser said. "Property crimes are the hardest crimes to solve."

Still, Berks-Lehigh Police cleared 37 percent of its level one crimes and 73 percent of its level two crimes in the township. Weiser compared that to neighboring South Whitehall Township, which cleared 29 percent and 58 percent, respectively.

Weiser said the traffic unit issued 2,620 tickets in 2010 and arrested 56 people for driving under the influence of alcohol.

"A four-man unit traffic unit is working in Upper Macungie Township for that reason, thanks to your supervisors," Weiser said.

The Berks-Lehigh K-9 Unit, which work solely on night shifts, arrested 25 people on drug charges and had 29 assists in Lehigh County, including capture of a murder suspect wanted by Allentown Police.

"I'm proud of all the guys. They did a lot of work on the clearance of crime in 2010," Weiser said.

Weiser noted community policing efforts continue throughout the year as crime watch citizens and police communicate through the Nixle messaging system and via Facebook.

Weiser noted the successful efforts of the community in ongoing programs including Operation Safe (Bus) Stop during the school year, Halloween bike patrols, robbery prevention training sessions at local banks and gang awareness seminars that keep residents on watch for criminal behavior in local developments.

Community policing events scheduled for this year include:

-- A cyber-safety class for parents set for March 9 at Jaindl Elementary School at 6:30 p.m.

-- D.A.R.E. graduation at Fogelsville Middle School and Jaindl Elementary School on March 24.

-- A junior fire/police academy in August at Upper Macungie Station 56.

-- A citizens police academy scheduled for September.

-- An emergency services day scheduled for September.

-- And, a citizens emergency response (CERT) training class later this year.