Law enforcement agencies count arrests zealously, and Rhode Island police chiefs, armed with computers, judge their officers' performance, in part, by those numbers. But the differences in the number of arrests varies dramatically statewide. Officers in Providence, the state's capital in crime as well as in government, made fewer arrests per officer than did police in most of the other cities and towns. The number of arrests isn't necessarily related to the crime rate. In Westerly, which had a very low crime rate, 35th in the state, officers made the second-highest number of arrests per officer.
Police chiefs draw sharply differing conclusions from the figures.
They tend to take credit for what they consider favorable statistics, and to discount unfavorable ones or blame them on demographic or other factors. Some chiefs whose officers make lots of arrests say that it proves they're doing a good job. Chiefs whose officers reported making fewer arrests tend to speak proudly of other elements of police work. IT'S 6 P.M. on a cloudy, sometimes rainy Saturday. Behind the Central Falls police station, Capt.