Police: Gray days equal domestic stress
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

BATH - Domestic complaints in the Village of Bath spiked in January, confirming a traditional hunch for police officers.

"Typically in winter time, the number of domestic incidents we respond to increase," said village police Chief David Rouse. The Bath police department received 20 domestic complaints in January, Rouse reported last week.

"Winter can be interesting," Rouse said.

Remember last year's balmy January? Village police tallied only 10 domestic complaints. And monthly domestic complaints averaged around 11 from July to Oct. 2007.

Rouse last week said experienced police are familiar with odd spikes in domestic complaints when the days turn short, the weather chilly and the skies gray. "Any kind of family disturbance, they seem to go up in the winter time," Rouse said. "Most of the complaints we respond to involve people getting aggravated and getting on each others' nerves.

"They can be fighting over who's going to have the remote control."

Experienced police become used to a variety of other season-related complaint patterns, as well, Rouse added. Take the Christmas season: "The arguments we hear about in December can be over money and bills," Rouse said.

The Bath police chief's database of statistics reveals other curious seasonal anomalies: November domestic complaints, for example, dropped sharply in 2006 and 2007. Police recorded five domestic complaints in November 2006, down from the eight they received in October that year and the 12 they received the following December.

In 2007, November complaints dropped to four, down from October's 12 and December's 10.

February also tends to be a mild month. Bath police recorded six domestic complaints in February 2006 and five complaints in February 2007. Complaints then returned to the double digits in March and April of both years.

Whatever the explanation, there's not argument over the prevalence of gray weather in western New York.

"This part of the country is notoriously cloudy," Bob Hudgins, hydrometeorological technician for the National Weather Service in Binghamton, said last week. "It has to do with our location. We get clouds that just aren't associated with any larger weather patterns."

Hudgins said the region receives so much cloud cover because of the hilly terrain and the abundance of lake water. "A cloud is moisture," he said. "We have a great source."