Crime in Mandan in 2006 was down 2 percent from 2005 and identical to a five-year average, the police chief says.

Mandan Police Chief Dennis Rohr released his final annual report for the department this week. Rohr announced his retirement on Jan. 2, and his last day as chief will be March 20.

The Bismarck Police Department's annual report will be completed and released in February or March, said Lt. Dan Donlin.

"We haven't had any major fluctuations," Rohr said about the amount of crime reported during the last five years.

Calls for service were down slightly from 2005. Police also handled less juvenile crime in 2006, with juvenile citations down 7 percent.

Rohr said more people are involved now in juvenile crime prevention, including school resource officers, a truancy officer and other agencies.

"I think there's a concerted effort that has contributed to the decrease in juvenile crime," he said.

Traffic-related offenses in Mandan continue to drop, but not necessarily because people are becoming better drivers, Rohr said. Less focus is placed on traffic enforcement than in the past, he said.

"It used to be that we spent a lot of time on enforcement," he said. "Over the years, things have changed."

Rohr said he would like to see more emphasis placed on traffic enforcement, because many criminal arrests originate as traffic stops.

Officers now have more reports to respond to and less time for "proactive responses," Rohr said. Part of that can be contributed to a shortage of officers in 2006. Mandan was five officers down from a full staff at one time in 2006, but now the department is down only one officer, Rohr said.

"We're getting some very good officers," he said. "By midsummer, this department should be in good shape as far as manpower."

Some of the more serious reports Mandan officers worked on this year included an increase in sexual offenses and child abuse and neglect cases.

Police received 62 reports of child abuse or neglect, up from 20 in 2005 and 39 in 2004.

Sexual offenses rose in 2006 compared to 2005 and to the fiv-year average in Mandan. Police responded to 32 felony sex offense cases and 27 misdemeanor sex offense cases in 2006, compared to 24 felony and 17 misdemeanor cases in 2005. The five-year average is 29 felony and 18 misdemeanor offenses.

Arrests for sex offenses did not increase significantly, despite the higher number of reported sex offenses. Rohr said numerous reported sex offenses occurred five or more years before they were reported, and little evidence was available in many of the cases.

"Not all cases are prosecutable," he said. "The level of proof is not always there."

Police also investigated one report of manslaughter, one robbery and 206 assaults.

Officers are doing a "good job at suppressing what they can," Rohr said. Offenses like sex crimes may not be prevented by officers being out on the streets, but Mandan police have been successful at "keeping problems from getting out of hand," the chief said.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com)