Officials with the Marysville Division of Police say things are trending in the right direction.
“All in all, pretty much everything was down,” Deputy Chief Tony Brooks said.
The division of police recently released statistics for 2019.
The Investigation Bureau performed 324 case investigations in 2019, a 10.5% increase over 2018.
“Fraud, scams and thefts still account for a majority of the criminal investigations,” according to the report. “Online or over the phone scams primarily targeting older citizens are as prevalent as ever. Drugs and drug related crimes are still a significant problem for the community.”
Brooks said there was a slight statistical increase in sex crimes, but, “we are already so low, that any incident there is going to be an increase.”
He said the apparent 42% decline in drug offenses is not a fair representation of what is happening in the community.
“Don’t let the number fool you,” he said.
Brooks said that the county’s Multi-Agency Drug Enforcement Task Force now handles many of the city drug cases.
“They go to the task force so they don’t stay on our books,” Brooks said.
Additionally, he said a change in the state hemp laws has had an impact in lowering statistics. He said that beginning in the middle of 2019, some THC was legalized, as long as it had a low-level concentration.
Brooks said there is no test to help differentiate between legal hemp and illegal marijuana. He said the change means police must investigate those charges differently now.
“We are still getting it, but it is a little different in how it goes to charges,” Brooks said.
According to reports, in 2019, MPD officers responded to 17,041 calls for service, including 13,039 citizen-initiated calls for service.
Officers from MPD completed 1,956 Incident Reports in 2019.
In 2019, the Communications Bureau answered 39,053 public contacts, which, according to the report was “slightly down” from 2018.
In 2019, officers from the Marysville Division of Police made 3,140 traffic stops and issued 960 traffic citations.
Officers responded to 460 traffic crashes on public roadways and took 102 “courtesy reports” involving private property crashes.
The department’s canine unit responded to 927 calls for service, and had 38 deployments with 16 arrests.
The Marysville Division of Police also completed 125 Crisis Intervention Reports in 2019. Those reports are used to assist with referrals for those who need mental health services.
The department also had 73 vacations/house watch requests, 364 well checks and 541 vehicle lock-outs.
“The Marysville Division of Police views training as a never-ending endeavor. In 2019, officers and staff attended over 1300 hours of training,” according to the report.
More than 600 of the training
In 2019, the department had 40 sworn members, seven communication officers, one records clerk and an administrative assistant. The average length of service for a police officer with the Division of Police in 2019 was 12 years.
• 21 employees have been with MPD for less than 10 years
• 7 employees have been with MPD for more than 10 years
• 8 employees have been with MPD for more than 15 years
• 8 employees have been with MPD for more than 20 years
• 4 employees have been with MPD for more than 25 years.