By Terry Karkos,Staff Writer

RUMFORD – Arrests, complaints and crimes such as drug trafficking are on the rise in Rumford.

But, thanks to a department restructuring last year, and hard-working new patrolmen, case closure rates are also climbing, Detective Lt. Stacy Carter said Wednesday.

“We’ve had a bunch of recent burglaries and thefts, but we’ve been able to close a majority of those cases with the restructuring,” he said.

On Oct. 24, the force was reorganized to better utilize its staff.

In an agreement reached with the Police Department’s union, one of four sergeant positions was eliminated.

One sergeant then became the department’s second detective to assist the lieutenant with investigations. That gave Rumford more detectives than the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, which covers much more territory.

The two remaining Rumford sergeants became road patrol supervisors.

Police officers, especially the sergeants, were also freed from dispatching duties, with the switch to civilian dispatchers.

It was a more efficient alignment, Carter said.

The department is staffed with eight patrolmen, three sergeants, a lieutenant and a chief.

“We’re working with less people now, but we have better (case) closure rates and more arrests. We have a lot of new officers that are go-getters. They’re working their tails off,” Carter said.

From January to Aug. 31 last year, there were 218 arrests. For the same period this year, arrests jumped to 274.

Carter attributed part of that increase to drug crime arrests made possible partly by the addition of the second detective, coupled with assigning one officer to drug enforcement work only.

Drug trafficking and aggravated drug trafficking crimes have increased from three for all of last year to seven by the end of August.

Complaints have also increased, jumping from 2,840 for the first eight months of last year to 3,031 as of Wednesday this year.

“Some of our major crimes are down, but that could be due to increased police visibility,” he said. Police have also seen a shift in the types of crimes being committed.

Comparing last year’s numbers to this year’s first eight months, he said assaults and aggravated assaults are up, domestic assaults are “slightly down,” and gross sexual assaults or rapes have dropped from a total of 10 last year to four as of Wednesday.

“We had only six aggravated assaults last year, but we’ve already had six, so far, this year,” Carter said.

Motor vehicle burglaries “are way down,” and thefts and criminal mischief numbers have dropped, but residential and business burglaries have risen, he added.