According to City of Delaware Police, crime deceased slightly in 2016 compared with the previous year.
Delaware Police Captain Adam Moore reported this week that on the whole, the police department took fewer offense reports for crimes like theft, assault, burglary, rape and petty theft. Moore said these figures have to be taken with a grain of salt.
“Figures don’t tell the whole story,” Moore said. Moore said every report doesn’t not necessarily lead to a conviction and said sometimes charges are dropped during the investigations.
Moore said that in 2016 the police department took 2,850 reports, which is one report higher than 2015’s report total of 2,849.
To take those reports, police traveled 316,000 miles in 2016.
Moore said simple assaults, not felonies, were down in from the 90 reports in 2015 and had decreased to 79 in 2016. Moore said there were eight felonious assault reports in 2015 and eight in 2016.
The police department also saw a decline in the amount of burglary and breaking and entering reports. Moore said there were 62 breaking and entering reports in 2015 and only 48 breaking and entering reports in 2016. Likewise, burglaries dropped from 122 to 98 in 2016.
Conversely, the police department took 152 criminal damaging reports in 2016, which is higher than 2015’s total of 129.
Moore said one of the steady increases has been possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
In 2015 there were 117 reports for possession of marijuana and 52 reports for possession of drug paraphernalia. In 2016 those numbers increased to 133 possession of marijuana reports and 53 reports for possession of drug paraphernalia.
Moore said that increase has to do with marijuana becoming more socially acceptable.
Additionally, in 2015 190 felony theft reports and 539 petty theft reports were taken by Delaware police. In 2016, 191 felony theft reports were taken and 529 petty thefts were reported. The police also reported that identity theft was down from 129 in 2015 to 93 in 2016.
“Delaware remains a safe community,” Moore said. “It’s not that we don’t have issues, we just have them on a smaller scale.”
Moore said the police department participated in more community initiatives in 2016 with events like Coffee with A Cop and the police department’s basketball camp.
“We provide a service to our residents that isn’t always crime related,” Moore said. “If you don’t know who else to call, call us.”
Moore said the police department also launched the “Delaware, Ohio Police Department” Facebook page in 2016 and hopes to engage and involve the community more with social media.
