RUMFORD – Despite rising crime, bigger caseloads and ever-growing paperwork, police here cleared more cases last year than the state average, acting Chief Mark Cayer said Wednesday.

Still, this year’s goal is to top last year’s 50.7 percent clearance rate, which was nearly twice the state average of 26.7 percent, he said last week in a report. The department’s clearance rate in 2005 was 35.4 percent.

In 2006, 13 officers handled 4,354 complaints, or an average of 334 complaints per officer.

“Rumford officers are always faced with a very large caseload volume,” Cayer said.

The department’s recovery rate for stolen property was 43.2 percent, well above the state average rate of 26.3 percent.

Officers also recovered $33,573 worth of last year’s $77,750 in stolen property.

He credited all officers in the department’s patrol and criminal investigative divisions for the above-average clearance rates when crime continue to rise.

“Every spring and summer, our numbers go up for victim crimes and assaults because there’s more drinking. Complaints related to substance abuse, like burglaries, thefts, child abuse, domestic assaults and nondomestic assaults, and sexual assaults, seem to be getting worse,” he said.

Although the overall crime rate increased 2.5 percent, the time that individual officers are required to spend on paperwork and court time rises at a much higher rate, he said.

“When I started as a police officer in the late 1980s, we were only required to do a half-page or three-quarter-page report on operating-under-the-influence crimes. Now, they need a six-page report and a lot more information.

“I think the judicial system is being too cumbersome. Of the 4,000-plus cases we have, any substantial case that does go to court involves a minimum of two to three hours of paperwork,” Cayer said.

In addition to doing administrative duties while Chief Stacy Carter is Rumford’s acting town manager, Lt. Cayer is a detective. He and detective Sgt. Daniel Garbarini usually do eight hours of paperwork per case. Most involve felony crimes.

“Our officers are never caught up on paperwork. Every year the court system expects more paperwork and more time spent in courts. I don’t anticipate that our caseloads will ever go down.

“Cases are defined by the socio-economic level of the community. If that level gets worse, caseloads get higher. If it drops, caseloads drop,” Cayer said.