Toccoa P.D. Releases 2014 Stats

The Toccoa Police Department releases its year end statistics for 2014.

Toccoa Police Chief Tim Jarrell said the report has some things for the department to be very proud of and some things that he wants the department to work on in the year ahead.

“I am happy that our motor vehicle accidents have gone down,” said Jarrell. “This is not a comment directed at our officers, but I am not very happy with our clearance rate not meeting or exceeding 2013.”

In 2014, Toccoa Police saw total incidents increase to 1857, up from 1802 in 2013, while the clearance rate dropped from 79 percent in 2013 to 72 percent in 2014 and the percent cleared by arrest dropped to 34 percent in 2014 from 40 percent in 2013.

Jarrell said there are multiple reasons that the clearance rate, the percentage of cases closed out by police, may have gone down last year.

“We are finding we are have difficulty with victims of crimes being forthcoming, witnesses cooperating with the investigation,” said Jarrell. “I do not think that is something going in just Toccoa itself. I think it is nationwide.”

Also, Jarrell said people are traveling hundreds of miles to commit crimes, making it harder at times to follow up on reports and investigations.

Burglaries dropped to 66 in 2014 from 73 in 2013, while crimes against persons, things like assaults and criminal trespasses, rose from 264 in 2013 to 307 in 2014.

Miscellaneous incidents, things like domestic incidents and DUI’s, also increased to 951 in 2014 from 913 in 2013.

Meanwhile, the police department reports that the number of drug arrests dropped in 2014 to 94 from 117 in 2013.

Jarrell said he feels there are two main reasons for this.

“The open air market of drug sales is becoming scarce,” said Jarrell. “More and more individuals are seeking refuge inside residences or vehicles to make their sales and purchases. (Also), our officers are paying attention to the communities. They are diligent in making sure the communities are not overrun with people committing criminal acts or selling drugs.”

Also, the number of motor vehicle accidents went down last year to 270, from 301 in 2013.

Jarrell said Big A Road is still the main problem area in the city for accidents.

He said police officers see two main things when it comes to traffic on Big A Road.

One is aggressive driving, said Jarrell, while the other is motorists using the middle turn lane for an acceleration lane.

Jarrell said that the police department will have a meeting to look at all of these numbers and talk about them.

He said they will talk about ways to improve the numbers, especially the clearance rate, in 2015.

“Our officers are the ones seeing it and responding to it,” said Jarrell. “What better individuals would I have to sit down and discuss it with?”

The Toccoa Police Department has a number of goals for 2015, including promoting community-officer relationships.