In 2012, the number of minors who were arrested in Mahwah continued on what police say has been a several-year trend in the township. According to statistics Police Chief Jim Batelli presented at a recent budget hearing, there were 197 juvenile cases handled in Mahwah last year, and 74 of them resulted in arrests.

“That rate is alarming,” Batelli said. “There is not really another way to put it.”

According to police, the number of juvenile crimes jumped over 30% from 2011 to 2012, and “the vast majority of [juvenile arrests] are of township residents,” Batelli said.

According to the police presentation, minors were arrested for the following crimes:

These crimes are more serious than crimes juveniles were being arrested for in Mahwah five years ago, Batelli said.

“It used to be more arrests for crimes you might expect, things like criminal mischief, but the seriousness of the crimes has changed,” Batelli said. “The arrests last year were more significant.”

Some of the most common juvenile arrests are for drug and alcohol-related crimes, police said. Though, “there are a lot of house parties,” Batelli said cops also broke up a fair number of underage parties in the woods, and arrested minors under the influence at local events, like sporting events, and after motor vehicle stops.

Coinciding with a town-wide jump in drug arrests last year, juveniles in Mahwah are getting caught with harder drugs, too. According to Batelli, “it’s not just marijuana. There is a lot of that, and we take that very seriously, but [last year] we had juvenile cases with cocaine, heroin, and a lot of prescription drugs.”

Batelli said the police department is working with Mahwah school officials, and keeping the school system in the loop on the rising trends. It also runs Mahwah Municipal Alliance programming geared toward youth in town.

“One of the issues is that we are handling these cases without a full-time juvenile officer,” Batelli said. A Mahwah detective does the job on an as-needed basis, due to attrition cuts to the PD over the past several years, he said.

“It’s definitely a balancing act. But, our goal with juvenile cases is to address the problem now, so that the behavior does not repeat itself when they turn into adults.”

According to the NJSP Uniform Crime Report from 2011, the statewide juvenile crime rate is going in the opposite direction. From 2010 to 2011, there was a 16% drop in juvenile crimes, the report said.

The rate in the county is also dropping. In 2011, 2,865 juveniles were arrested in Bergen County, compared with 3,139 in 2010, the report said.

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