2020 Annual Report Released
Parsons Police has released the 2020 Annual Report. The police department uses the Annual Report as a way to let our stakeholders, the citizens, know what it is we do each year and give an analytical update and report to show the community how we are ranking compared to surrounding communities. It is prepared each year by the Administrative Services Unit with the help of each division to gather data and information.
The 2020 Annual Report showed some challenges due to the Global COVID-19 Pandemic in several areas of policing. We saw a rise in our calls for service from 16,202 in 2019 to 18,782 in 2020, over a 13% increase. This can be attributed to several things such as calls for mask ordinance violations, business inspections, animal calls or just officer engagement with the community. As a department, 2020 brought more challenges than we could have ever expected. As a professional law enforcement agency, we expect that there will be homicides, rapes, robberies, and general complaints. Never has there been preparation for a global pandemic, but we still prevailed, even with 70% of the police departments personnel contracting COVID-19 throughout the year.
"This is not just something that we as officers can plan, train or even think of happening," said Sergeant Jason Ludwig. "It's not every day that a global pandemic rocks the very foundation of a city, so training for it was not an option. There was very little training for police and first responders to properly respond to calls for service for a period of time, but we managed to rise to the challenge and handle as much as we could safely for both officers and citizens alike."
Throughout the pandemic we saw a drop in 5 out of 8 core crime statistics. In 2020 we did have an increase in Assaults( 9), Robberies( 3), and one more Homicide but made significant drops in Batteries(-34), Thefts(-40), Vehicles Thefts(-11), Burglaries(-24) and Rape(-1).
Parsons Police Chief Robert Spinks said, "Even with everything that was going on throughout the country with mass riots, looting and just general chaos, Parsons PD was still able to have a successful major case clearance rate, and lower the amount of property crime in Parsons. A large part of that credit goes to our superb Patrol and Investigation Divisions and more importantly our community. The idea of 'See It, Hear It, Report It' has been resonating through the community and it shows in our case clearances. We want to stop crime before it happens and prevent it from ever taking place, but the fact of the matter is that without an officer on every corner of the street and inside every home it will never be completely preventable. Our citizens can help make a difference and have done great by calling in tips, suspicious information, and giving locations of dangerous criminals in the city. We as an agency want to thank everyone who comes forward and becomes part of the change. I hope that 2021 continues to bring change and challenges because the Parsons Police Department and the citizens of Parsons will continue to rise to the challenge."
The 2020 Annual Report will be posted on the Parsons Police Departments website www.parsonspd.com as a downloadable PDF for all to see. We want everyone to look at the work that is, has, and will continue to be done by the department.
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