SPD worked more calls in 2019 than year before

Jan. 26--The Somerset Police Department reports that the number of arrests, number of vehicle collisions and number of calls that officers responded to increased slightly in 2019 over the previous year.

According to SPD's Captain Mike Correll, the department responded to 1,327 total vehicle collisions last year, compared to 1,268 in 2018.

Those collisions include three fatal wrecks that took place within the city limits.

According to the Kentucky State Police, Pulaski County saw a total of 16 fatal accidents in 2019.

Correll said Somerset Police want to focus on decreasing the total number of vehicle collisions in 2020.

"This an area we plan to place some emphasis on, through education and enforcement," Correll said.

"I would like to tell you we would be much more strict on traffic violations to lower the number of collisions, but that does not always prove to be the case. We wrote almost 1,000 more traffic violations, stopped over 1,100 cars, and the number of collisions still went up," he said.

He added that 610 vehicles were taken off the road due to having no insurance.

In terms of arrests, Correll said the department had a slight increase in the number, from 2,098 in 2018 to 2,121 in 2019.

The number of men arrested in 2019 was 1,442, while 679 women were arrested.

He said that 941 warrants were served last year, with the "vast majority" of those being for failure to appear in court.

SPD had a total of 20,980 calls dispatched last year, slightly more than 2018's total of 19,756. However, the two years before that saw a higher call volume: 2017 saw 21,060 calls, and 2016 saw 22,199 calls.

Finally, last year saw an increase in the number of events in which SPD assisted with security or traffic control -- not surprising, since last year saw more downtown activities, including the City-hosted food truck events like "Foodstock" and "Streets and Eats."

"We worked 169 special events, from 5K's to large events like MMF. That's an increase of 11 more events than in 2018," Correll said.

"These are events in which our law enforcement status was needed for security or traffic control. Twelve of these events required six or more officers."

The department did all of this while technically not being at full force.

Correll said that the total number of officers allowed for the department is 46, and they currently have 45. Seven of those will be attending the Police Academy.

"It takes 20 weeks for the academy time, then 14 weeks of field training before they can hit the road on their own," Correll explained.

"So, we are currently not at full force. We hope to reach full force in 2020 and beyond. Because, while we are managing our call volume, the city continues to grow. If the city grows we need to grow with it."

Correll added that in 2019, SPD hired a total of eight new employees and had one retiree return.

___

(c)2020 the Commonwealth Journal (Somerset, Ky.)

Visit the Commonwealth Journal (Somerset, Ky.) at somerset-kentucky.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.