Riverhead Police data show 15% rise in crime reported in 2021, with increase driven by reports of identity theft and fraud

Crimes reported by the Riverhead Police Department continued to climb in 2021, up 15% over 2020 and 18% over 2019, according to police department data.

Among the “index crimes” tracked by the U.S. Department of Justice, the most serious crimes such as homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault remained at very low levels in Riverhead compared to overall criminal incidents typically reported by Riverhead Police in any given year.

There was a spike in reported robberies in 2021, when 17 robberies were reported — up from 10 in 2020 and 8 in 2019. There was one homicide reported by Riverhead Police in 2021 and none in either of the two prior years. However, homicide cases are investigated by Suffolk County Police and are reported by the county police department even when they occur in Riverhead Town Police’s jurisdiction, according to Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller. Riverhead PD reported one homicide in Riverhead in 2019, one in 2020, and none in 2021.

Among the index crimes for property offenses, the biggest change was in grand larcenies reported, which rose to 234 in 2021 from 191 in 2020 — which was up from 153 in 2019. Reports of petit larceny rose from 622 in 2019 to 643 in 2020 to 660 in 2021.

Reported incidents of identity theft rose sharply over the past three years, from 58 in 2019 to 73 in 2020 to 174 in 2021. Reported incidents of fraud were also on the rise, from 29 in 2019 to 59 in 2020 to 68 in 2021.

While the number of criminal incidents reported by police rose each year from 2019 to 2021, the number of arrests reported by police plummeted over that period, from 925 in 2019 to 450 in 2021 — a drop of more than half. Arrests in 2021 were up compared 2020, from 320 in 2020 to 450 in 2021.

The 2020 drop in arrests coincided with the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York. Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller, when presenting his monthly public safety reports to the town board in 2020, said the pandemic contributed to a drop in crime in Riverhead Town. Total criminal incidents reported by town police in 2020 actually rose over 2019, however, while the number of arrests fell.

The steep decline in arrests in 2020 coincided with the implementation of a series of criminal justice reform measures that took effect in January 2020. The measures included the elimination of cash bail for most property and nonviolent crimes. The criminal justice reform measures also included rules requiring approval by the district attorney prior to the filing of charges by police and rules expanding the process called discovery, which gives people charged with with crimes the right to access evidence obtained by prosecutors.

The elimination of cash bail for nonviolent crimes propelled a nearly 75% drop in the number of people taken into custody by Riverhead police and held for arraignment following arrest. Police held 319 prisoners in 2021, compared to 690 in 2019, before the criminal justice reform laws took effect. In 2020, the number of prisoners held by Riverhead Police had fallen to 181.

Though the raw numbers of prisoners held declined sharply, the decline corresponded to the raw numbers of arrests over the three-year period. The proportion of prisoners held to arrests made remained steady in 2021 compared to the pre-reform year of 2019 at about 75% in both years.

The criminal justice reform laws require police to issue appearance tickets to people charged with crimes for which cash bail was eliminated. The appearance tickets require those accused to appear in justice court at a later date to answer the charges. Prior to the 2020 criminal justice reforms, nearly all people charged with crimes, including nonviolent misdemeanors, were held for arraignment in justice court, where a defendant could be required to post bail to secure their release. People who cannot post the bail set by the court are held at the county jail until the charges against them are disposed by either plea bargain or, rarely, by trial. The reforms aimed to reduce pretrial detention of people accused of crimes who were held in jail because they could not afford bail, rather than because they were likely not to appear for a later court date.

The elimination of cash bail immediately drew harsh criticism by Republican lawmakers, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies. Officials who oppose the reforms blame them for spiking crime rates and, in particular, a rise in gun violence in New York. So far, there is no data to support the connection. According to data released by the state last month, between June 2020 and June 2021, 2,051 people were arrested for a violent felony after being released on a prior arrest that had not yet been adjudicated. That represents 2% of 100,000 cases related to the state’s new bail laws, according to the State Division of Criminal Justice Services.

In Riverhead, the police chief said he had no data on the rearrest of people released without bail pending disposition of a prior charge. The chief said his data is not cross-referenced with data from other departments, so he cannot say whether people arrested in Riverhead had pending criminal charges in other jurisdictions and had been released without bail as a result of the new law.

Correction: This article has been amended to correct a misstatement regarding homicides reported in Riverhead in 2021. There was one homicide reported in 2021, not zero as originally stated.