DeKalb Police Officer Tom Reilly’s day is anything but routine.

Everyday at the beginning of his shift, Reilly starts by going to roll call, or “shift meeting” as he put it. A nine-year police veteran who has been with DeKalb for five years, Reilly is the first K-9 officer for the city of DeKalb. He and his german shepherd, Nick, have been working together for nearly two years.

On Saturday afternoon, Reilly got a call from dispatch about a stolen vehicle. The vehicle was reported stolen on Thursday morning, when the victim called the police department and said she saw the vehicle parked in an apartment on Augusta Avenue. The call eventually led to the arrest of a DeKalb resident.

DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen said crimes like these fall into part one of the annual report, and these types of crimes are down in DeKalb.

The DeKalb Police Department 2008 Annual Report reported overall crime is down. Feithen broke down the report into two parts and explained what each category contained.

“Part one crimes are the crimes the federal government has decided will make up the crime rate for a community,” Feithen said.

According to part one of the report, crime includes homicide, criminal sexual assault, robbery, aggravated battery, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.

Feithen said part one crime has seen a slight decline in the last ten years, but said the one percent decrease is more significant then it might look. “Over that same period of time we’ve actually seen an increase in our population of 5 to 6,000, so it’s good in that respect,” Feithen said. “You would normally think with an increase in population, you would see some increase, but we have seen a slight decrease.”

Part two crime is up almost 26 percent from last year, the annual report said. These types of crimes are generally less serious, Feithen said, and include battery, gambling and drug and liquor control among other minor offenses.

However, just like part one, there are variables to consider, Feithen said. A grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation has been dedicated to patrolling high-traffic roads such as Annie Glidden Road, Lincoln Highway and Sycamore Road enforcing traffic laws, he said.

“The more patrolling you have, the more reports you will have,” Feithen said. He said the grant amount varies, but it is “generally $135,000.”

When asked to grade the progress of the police department over the last year, Feithen said he would give a B, citing improvements could be made if the new police department were to be built.

“We can’t necessarily give certain cases the amount of time we would like to,” he said. “At a certain point you have to decide whether you can devote resources to investigate something. It’s one thing if you have a lot of good leads and bring [a case] to a relatively quick conclusion then you work on it. But a case that has little to go on you may just write the case report, so in that respect we could do better if we had the resources.”

Feithen said the best way to prevent crimes is for the citizens to report any suspicious activity.

“Even though we are short some officers, we would rather go and check it out and find out everything’s OK than find out that a burglary just happened and now we have extra work plus having victims,” Feithen said.

Reilly said the best way to avoid being a victim is to not put yourself in harm’s way.

“I’m sure you’ve seen it; when a person, who drank too much, is walking home by themselves. It makes them an easy target,” he said. “Above all, be honest. If you see something suspicious speak up.”

Reilly said the most difficult part of his job is trying to convince people police are not out to get them.

“We don’t go out looking for parties to break-up,” Reilly said. “Just because a patrolman pulls up behind you doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to get pulled over.”

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