The Williamsport Bureau of Police began collecting monthly crime statistics in July of 2021 and publishing them on Crime Watch, an important step toward transparency, according to Chief Justin Snyder.
Prior to July, the city’s criminal statistics were collected through a hand-written tally system, Snyder said, adding that it made looking at trends over time difficult.
“It’s about being transparent and letting people know what’s going on here,” Snyder said. “We have a tendency not to share and then it gets misinterpreted.”
The bureau’s monthly reports are published through Crime Watch and reveal some of the most common crimes in Williamsport during the last half of 2021.
The two most common crime categories are domestic disturbances and general disturbances/fights, with nearly 600 calls for each from July to December.
Just under is public assistance calls and motor vehicle accidents at just over 480 and 330 respectively. Next is theft at 240 calls for the last six months of the year.
Drug-related offenses came just below theft at 166 reported crimes.
During the last six months of the year, July saw the most service calls with 1,099 in the city. Below is the full list of service calls per month:
The highest months for overtime by city police officers were in November and December with 70 and 75 overtime hours respectively. See the full monthly overtime report below:
Snyder added that tracking calls and crime statistics is not the only thing the city police department will do to increase transparency.
“We want to do a survey of how we could do things better and how we could be more transport,” Snyder said.
The bureau has a compliment of 48 police officers for the city, which has a population of roughly 28,500. In addition to crime statistics, the bureau also posts press releases and most wanted reports on Crime Watch.
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