By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WEST CHESTER TWP. - Crime is growing, too, in this booming township, and officials have called on a retired Cincinnati police officer to help get a handle on the problem.

Michael Neumann, a Cincinnati police officer for 26 years, will start a crime analysis unit for township police. He was working for the Hamilton County Regional Crime Information Center in downtown Cincinnati as a computer programmer/analyst.

He gave his notice there Wednesday after trustees unanimously approved his hiring as a senior crime analyst Tuesday night.

In another move reacting to rising crime, trustees unanimously approved the $54,940 purchase of 100 new and upgraded guns and holsters for police. Officers have been using 13-year-old weapons, including six pistols that recently failed during training and other exercises at the gun range, Police Chief John Bruce told trustees.

Mr. Neumann expects to begin in West Chester the first week of December.

"The chance to start a crime analysis unit from the beginning is a great challenge, something I think I will really like," said Mr. Neumann, 51, of Delhi Township.

Mr. Neumann teaches crime analysis at the Tristate Regional Community Policing Institute in Sharonville, which handles police training for Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

He said he was surprised at the size of West Chester's population and calls the recent crime spur and housing and business boom "unbelievable."

"Usually you don't equate that much crime going on in a township," he said. "You don't think there's actually almost 60,000 people up there. I assumed they had 25 or 30 officers. Counting civilians, there are over 100 employees. That's a lot of people. I was surprised to find out it was so big."

Mr. Neumann's first task will be to organize the department's new computer system so officers can quickly gather statistics and other data to help them do their jobs faster and better. Mr. Neumann is not only experienced in police work, but also with the particular computer system West Chester now uses, its fingerprint identification system and GIS mapping program.

"We are very fortunate to get him," Police Chief John Bruce said.

Mr. Neumann arrives in West Chester as crime and calls for service are rising, while the area undergoes residential and business growth. West Chester's population has doubled -- to 54,895 in 2000-- since 1980.

Serious crime - such as robbery, assault and auto theft - rose 15 percent in West Chester between 2000 and 2001, and is estimated to rise 18 percent this year, police records show.

Officers had a busy summer with 36 business break-ins between June 13 and Sept. 2, a rash of garage and shed thefts and armed robberies and other crimes at apartment complexes.

Yet police staffing has been so short, a regular patrol was removed last year from an apartment complex - Meadow Ridge off Muhlhauser Road - that experienced soaring crime this year. After several incidents this summer, officers are keeping a closer eye on the neighborhood.

The department is hiring more officers and should have 81 by January. There are 73 sworn officers now. Residents passed a 2.5-mill police levy in 2001 to make five police hires a year for the next five years to bring the township closer to the Midwest's average of 2.4 officers per 1,000 people.

Seven officers were hired in August, but most were to fill openings left by retirements.

Despite West Chester's rise in crime this year - which is on pace with other Tristate communities and ones across the country - West Chester still is one of the lowest crime areas in Ohio. In 2000, the township - the third largest in the state - was the third-lowest rated jurisdiction for crime in Ohio out of 16 other areas with populations between 40,000 and 60,000, according to the Department of Justice.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.