Crime and Punishment

. . . In Dover

A Daily Double: Journalism Workshop Special Report

By Isabella Castro, Emma Croll, Will Edwards, Hannah Lee, Angelina Zhang

Officer Grabert

How the Station Works

As we enter the police station, we are greeted by
Officer Harry Grabert, a tall, intimidating man. He brings us
to a bleak conference room, a sign on the door announcing
that we were being video and audio recorded. We sit down
around the table and introduce ourselves, and the Officer at
the head of the table introduces himself as Officer Grabert.
Officer Grabert is a patrolman at the Dover Police
Department. He also is very involved with all of the schools
in Dover-Sherborn, teaching DARE in the elementary
schools, doing investigations at the high school, and teaching
a few lessons with middle school students. During school
vacations though he is a patrolman, meaning he responds
to calls for service, makes arrests, resolves disputes, takes
crime reports, and conducts traffic enforcement.
When asked what his favorite part of being a police
officer is he responds, I just like helping people. I like being
there in peoples time of need. I love teaching kids, with the
DARE program, with the health program and everything
like that. I like being in the community, not just helping kids
but everyone. If someone has a flat tire on the road, help
them change it - if someones committing a crime, I like
arresting people too.
On the other hand, the worst part of the job, for
Officer Grabert, is seeing terrible crimes and accidents such
as fatal car accidents, domestic disputes, suicides, and kids
using drugs. Another part of the job that Officer Grabert
dislikes is dealing with deer after they get hit in the road.
Although he doesnt like it, he understands that even though
its difficult, its part of the job.

In the station there are 16 police, 3
specials, 2 co-ops, a sergeant, and a chief.
The levels of police are patrolmen, detective,
co-ops (a co-op is a college student who
volunteers to help, they arent full time), shifts,
reserves, sergeant, and chief. When you call
911 you usually have something you need help
with, but sometimes people accidently call
911, such as when a little kid is playing with
the phone, or when someone means to dial 411
and accidently presses the 9. Sometimes people
call 911 because someone thinks someone is
scratching on the door, but when the police
turn up they find a raccoon. Joke calls as
pranks have been made once in a while, though
they have not happened recently, according to
Officer Grabert.

In the Dover police department there
are 2 male cells with cots, and 1 female cell
that is bigger than a male cell and contains a cot
and a toilet. There is a bar where the handcuffs
connect to where the police take a head on
picture and a profile picture. There is a room
full of files that keeps records of all crimes
that have happened in Dover. In the entrance
there is a desk used to watch the police station
from the outside, to receive 911 calls, tracking,
and to communicate with firefighters. There
is a room by the police offices where they ask
questions to the suspect and video tape it so
they can see the body language. The 16 full
time police have a place where they can sleep,
a cafeteria, and a gym to keep fit.
For comparison, consider the differences
in operation between Dover and Framingham.
Framingham is close to Dover but is much
bigger so it has lot more crime. Dover doesnt
have that much crime, so they only need one
detective - Framingham is bigger and has more
crime so they have eight detectives. If you look
on the Framingham crime rates you will see that
the police have to deal with many more violent
crimes. In 2008, Framingham had 1,166 thefts.
In Dover in that year they had 23 thefts. Quite
a difference!

The holding cell above is used by the Dover Police to hold

their criminals until further notice.

Collaboration

Underage Crime and First Offenses

Have you ever wondered how connected the police and
fire departments are? Turns out they are very connected to the
point that the fire department is more like a part of the police then
its own thing. The calls from 911 go to the police department
first. The police dispatch the firemen but the police are generally
the first on the scene. They try to keep Fire updated on whats
happening but try to avoid running into burning buildings
because they dont have the equipment to survive it.

If you have ever wondered how much separate police
forces communicate, it turns out they work together well.
If there is a big felony in a nearby town, the Dover police go
to help. Officer Grabert has worked with Wellesley, Natick,
Sherborn and others. The SWAT team is formed of officers from
all around Eastern Massachusetts. Policemen from other towns
cant pull over people for speeding but they can stop a crime in
progress in other towns like handcuffing a robber and waiting
for that towns police to show up, even if theyre off-duty. The
towns in this part of Massachusetts seem to be good at working
together.

The problem of how teenagers

should be punished for crimes is a very
controversial issue. There are generally
two approaches for how to deal with
underage drinking or drug possession for
first offenders. The first one is to just arrest
them.
The second option is summoning
them to court. It involves taking the offender
to the station, calling their parents/legal
guardians and let them deal with disciplining
the child. The parents and the offender
then attend a magistrate hearing where
the punishment is decided. For first time
offenders then can do a diversion program,
which involves taking few aversion classes
and doing community service. The incident
doesnt show up on the criminal record if
this option isnt taken. Or they can give you
a fine and a ticket called a Quaff and put it
on the criminal record, but it will vanish if
the offender stays out of trouble for twelve
months. Repeated offenders are when they
go a little firm.
According to patrolman Harry
Grabert underage crime increases when
school is out. They typically occur on
Fridays and Saturdays, nights where they
dont need to get up early because of school.
The police say they dont hold teenagers as
responsible as adults because theyre still
developing, and maturing, while adults
are already fully developed so they should
know the law. When questioned on what
he thought was the worst crime in Dover
history, Harry Grabert said he thought some
of the worst crimes in Dover were the ones
with children or the elderly as victims.

White Collar Crime and Identity Theft

The most common crimes in Dover are identity theft
and white collar crime. Identity theft is when someone takes
another persons identity, for example: stealing their ID. White
collar crime is when someone takes advantage of their job then
takes more money and does it without violence, for example: If
a boss of the company takes more than his/her share instead of
just taking a bit more than the employees he/she takes more and
pretends they never made that amount of money.

This picture shows the actual key police officers use to lock criminals in their holding cells.

Traffic Violations

The Town of Dover is known to many as the home of many strict patrol officers, although, as explained by
Officer Grabert a patrol officer himself, they are not intentionally strict. He explained that if they see violations
(particularly traffic), they will take action to put it to a halt. In previous interviews, a few counselors here at
CRCAP told many of their personal stories of their run-ins with the Dover Police. All of them particularly aiming
towards the fact that they do hold higher standards on the road, not letting any mishaps pass by. Even though,
when they were pulled over it was more of a warning statement given, never a ticket. The Dover Police seems to
have a trend of giving out the impression that they will at any second give a ticket, keeping those passing through
Dover on their toes. Also, explained Officer Grabert, it is at times difficult to cover all of Dover with only 16
patrol officers, no matter how small the town itself may seem. Sometimes it is commonly know that officers off
shift will need to fill-in for those unable to attend their own shift. Which does seem to happen quite often, since it
is a very common crime in the daily life of many people.
Traffic Violations are one of the most common crimes in Dover. This does increase during rush hour, and
the school year, but overall the same pattern from year to year. Also, while an officer may be in another town,
off shift they are not permitted to give out any tickets to anyone. Although, there are exceptions to major crimes
(murders, robberies, ECT...). Traffic violations are one of the most commonly seen crimes in many of all places,
especially in the small town of Dover.
The Police and CRCAP
Believe it or not, the police and CRCAP interact
a lot. Mike D has a lot of communication with the police;
from chipmunk break-ins to festival day parking. Some of
you may know that chipmunks like to frequent the CRCAP
campus, and when those cute criminals find a way into the
building, alarms go off, alerting the police who have to call
Mike D. On one particular incident, Mike D found teenagers
who broke into the campus, hopped the fence surrounding
the pool and went swimming! Mike went over to talk to
the kids and reprimanded them, telling them it was private
property. The police were already on their way, and arrived
while Mike was talking to the teenagers. Although Mike had
been easier on the kids, the policeman who arrived at the
scene was very stern, and scared the pants off the kids.
Other counselors have had interactions with the
police, mostly from traffic violations. The police have even
caught the sneakiest of people, Sneaky Josh. Josh said that
the officer that pulled him over for doing 35 miles per hour,
in a 40 mph area, was very professional and seemed hard
working. Other counselors, who have been pulled over
before disagree with that statement, saying that since Dover
has such little crime, all they do is pull people over. One
counselor anonymously states that, The suspicion is that
theyre bored, so they focus their energy on things that they
see a lot of. Although that may be true, the Dover police are
generally well liked, because rarely do they give out tickets,
generally pulling people over hand handing out warnings.

Office Grabert showing the area where criminals would be shackled to the wall to have their
mugshots taken.