Douglas County Sheriff Rick Trapp hopes the days of compiling crime statistics by hand are nearly over.

“This is a time consuming, tedious process,” Trapp said.

The Lawrence Police Department, under a long-standing agreement, maintains all of the county law enforcement agencies’ reports. A new information system the Police Department is implementing is expected to make it easier for all departments to obtain statistical data, Trapp said.

The Sheriff’s Office doesn’t have a crime analysis unit, so officers can’t say for sure why burglaries and robberies went up in 2002 to 91. In 2001 the total was 69.

Nor can they say for sure that patrolling for speeders and substance abuse checkpoints had anything to do with the number of traffic fatalities dropping from 7 in 2001 to 4 in 2002. Injury accidents actually increased in 2002, from 79 to 108.