By Don Jovich
and Dave O'Brien
Record-Courier staff writers
WINDHAM " Police Chief Ed Perdian remembers an incident several years ago when a Garrettsville convenience store was robbed by a Windham resident. He chose the store as a target only because the Windham Circle K was closed.
Perdian, a Garrettsville resident, later heard a neighbor's house was robbed by a Windhamite.
The law enforcement term for such incidents is "spillage," and in 2006, after 26-and-a-half years with the Moreland Hills Police Department, Perdian took over the reigns at the Windham Police Department. He later found an ally in new Mayor Robert Donham, who took office in January and immediately held a meeting with the police department.
Donham gave Windham police several challenges, while increasing the department's share of the village budget and making policing the community "without exception the No. 1 priority of my administration."
And police "have responded tremendously, and have work tirelessly to eliminate the criminal element from our town. They have been very successful and are making Windham a very safe place to raise a family," Donham said.
He said the village has seen crime drop nearly 40 percent over their 2007 numbers and even greater compared to just 18 months ago when Perdian was brought aboard.
"This has all been done while maintaining the nearly identical arrest numbers, validating that although incidents our down, our officers are still maintaining constant enforcement," he said.
According to numbers broken down geographically by Perdian, Windham police responded to 302 calls on Maple Grove Road, a high crime area of the village, from Jan. 1 to July 31, 2006. Of those calls, 289 were found to be legitimate complaints or crimes, of which 55 were cleared by arrest for a 19 percent clearance rate.
In comparison, from Jan. 1 to July 31, 2008, Windham police responded to 121 calls on Maple Grove Road, all of which were found to be legitimate. Of that number, 67 resulted in arrest, for a 55 percent clearance rate.
On Belden Drive, there were six reported thefts in the first seven months of 2006, resulting in no arrests. In the first seven months of 2008, there were six reports total, resulting in two arrests.
Similar reductions in crime numbers were noted on Greenmeadow Road, Community Road, East Center Street, Cloverleaf Road and other areas identified as high crime in the past, Perdian said.
Perdian said the department "was a very reactive department," when he took over, primarily responding to crimes after they happened, filing charges and doing very little investigative work.
"You can't be proactive if you're writing reports or on a phone call," he said, driving around Windham on a recent day.
"Look: There's no drug dealers out today," he said, scanning some of the project housing on Windham's Maple Grove Road. "They used to just stand outside and wait for customers."
Perdian said officers now dictate reports to dispatchers, who enter them into the department's computer system, where they are searchable and retrievable by name, address of incident, business address and other criteria, Perdian said.
If residents at a certain address have a history of domestic violence, "that's helpful" to officers if they know what they're walking into, said dispatcher Mert Hall.
In 2006, the state Law Enforcement Automated Data System committee found 33 percent errors in Windham's LEADS searches for wanted persons, stolen vehicles and protection orders. Two years later, during the 2008 audit, the committee found 0 percent errors, said Perdian.
"Our numbers don't lie, we had a 33 percent audit improvement rating, with no errors, unheard of considering a statewide average between 6 to 8 percent," Donham said.
Other changes improved station and employee security, technology and .
Hall said she's happy dispatchers no longer sit only a few feet from handcuffed suspects, who can become abusive and belligerent. She recalled an incident where a woman's purse was thrown at her head.
"It's clean, a better arrangement. There's less tension. You feel more secure," she said.
Windham has four full-time and seven part-time officers, of whom two are trained K-9 handlers. Perdian said for Windham's size, the village probably needs 10 full-time officers, but realizes the various budgetary and hiring restrictions facing the village.
In the past, the department had taken some policies and procedures from agencies in the area and put them in place in Windham. But Perdian said he believes the job of supervisors is to "write their own policies and procedures."
"It's not that they were bad procedures, but what works in Cleveland isn't going to work in Windham. And what works in Windham isn't going to work in Cleveland," he said. "No one likes change, but once they see how things can be, you can make everyone part of something bigger and better than themselves. We have a proactive police force. We have a safer community now," Perdian said.
Donham agreed.
"I am very pleased with what we have been able to accomplish over the past eight months. However, as I have told my officers, our goal is not to become an above average police department. The goal is be the best small town police department in the state of Ohio," he said.