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Special City Council Meeting Thursday,May 22, 2014 Page 16 also been higher if changes to the proactive policing operation had been made be- fore 2010. While the proactive policing appeared to be a conscious decision on the part of the department, recognizing the need for a commercial patrol, Councilmember Et- ten questioned if that position would take over commercial patrols, freeing anoth- er officer to return to neighborhood policing. Mr. Mathwig responded that it would definitely allow officers more time for traf- fic stops, speed and safety controls, and to have more of a presence in neighbor- hoods. At the request of Councilmember Etten, Mr. Mathwig advised that it was not a conscious operational change or decision in 2013 to move people out of neighborhoods and into commercial areas,but simply the department's reaction to changes happening. With the normal operating procedure to break the community into four areas, with #1 and #3 on the west side, and #2 and #4 on the east side, Mr. Mathwig advised that it was now typically a daily occurrence for the east side cars going to assist the west side cars, which served to negatively affect district integrities. Councilmember McGehee questioned if the way the department was reporting proactive visits, not just calls, created a higher incident report, and whether a for- mal incident report was being made or simply a verbal report with no follow-up. Mr. Mathwig clarified that when alerted to those incidents, staff would take a re- port and investigate them as much as possible after the delayed notification. Ms. Mahmud noted that this was a significant piece of crime prevention: building those relationships with business owners or apartment complex owners, managers and/or tenants; as the more comfortable they were in reporting incidents and see- ing crimes decreasing, the better off everyone was. Ms. Mahmud noted that this allowed reducing or eliminating the criminal elements; many tied to multiple crimes in the community and area, and that information in turn allowed for a big- ger chunk of that crime element to be diminished. While supporting the proactive approach, Councilmember McGehee questioned how much resulted in actually solving crimes; and sought additional data to base that information. Councilmember McGehee requested additional clearance rate information going forward. Mr. Mathwig advised that the clearance rate for the state remained similar over the years; and remained the same, but since more proactive policing was being done, whether at the time of the incident or a day later, the clearance rate re- mained the same.