In its annual crime report for 2018, the Dunwoody Police Department reported that while overall crime rose only slightly for the year and consisted of mostly property crimes, the category of violent crimes against people rose significantly, led by an increase in armed robberies.
According to the Dunwoody Police Department’s annual report, released Tuesday, officers responded to 2,137 serious crimes, including homicide, rape and aggravated assault and property crimes such as burglary and larceny. That’s about a 2 percent increase from 2017, though most of the increases stemmed from violent crimes, according to the report.
Violent crimes against people, which includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assaults, rose to 78 in 2018, a 30 percent increase over 2017. Included in that category, there was a 56.5 percent increase in armed robberies, from 23 cases in 2017 to 36 in 2018, and the number of reported rapes more than doubled, from four to nine. There were two homicides in the city last year, up from one in 2017.
“Reducing crime is a major focus of our crime fighting efforts in 2019,” Chief Billy Grogan wrote in the report.
The top property crime was larceny, with more than 1,800 incidents reported last year.
Officers made 2,004 arrests in 2018, an 11.5 percent decrease from 2017. The top offenses that resulted in arrests were shoplifting, failure to appear in court and drug offenses, according to the report. About 86 percent of the people they arrested were not Dunwoody residents.
And don’t forget about traffic citations — the top violations were speeding, following too close and having an expired tag.
Some other interesting stats from the 2018 report: Officers responded to 59,506 calls for police service, almost 3,000 of which stemmed from alarms. Officers filed more than 5,300 incident reports and gave out more than 7,900 citations.
The police department also responded to 19 overdoses, three of which were fatal.
Credit: Johnny Crawford / AJC
Credit: Johnny Crawford / AJC
The department said there were 105 use-of-force incidents, though there were no excessive force complaints. “Use of force” is defined as the display of a firearm or Taser in a confrontational manner, the deployment of a firearm or Taser, physical force beyond soft hand contact, and the destruction of a rabid or seriously injured animal.
Eleven complaints were filed last year against 13 officers, three of which were sustained after internal reviews.
“Both of these stats reflect our commitment to excellence and fair and impartial policing,” Grogan wrote.
Dunwoody, located in the northern tip of DeKalb County, has a population of nearly 50,000; its police department was founded almost exactly 10 years ago.
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