Lakewood police: Service calls and car thefts rose, eluding incidents tripled last year
The city of Lakewood saw more calls for service, more motor vehicle thefts and more arrests in 2023 than the previous year, according to a presentation Police Chief Patrick Smith gave to the Lakewood City Council in study session Monday.
Smith, who became chief last year, said there have been many challenges for the department in recent years. Stating the department was understaffed most of 2023, Smith said he was proud to have it fully staffed by the end of the year.
The Lakewood Police Department serves a population of more than 60,000 people. The department consists of 100 commissioned police officers, two Community Service officers, two Court Compliance Officers, two Animal Control Officers, three Code Enforcement Officers and ten civilian support staff.
In 2023 the department received 53,921 calls for service, a 10.4% increase from 2022. There were 26.6% more arrests in 2023, including nearly 59.8% more felony arrests than in 2022, more warrants issued and significantly more gross misdemeanor arrests, according to department data.
Officers responded to life-threatening calls in 4.3 minutes on average. All other priority calls had an average 8.1 minute response time, according to Smith’s presentation. The top four categories for calls for service included welfare checks, traffic stops, suspicious vehicles and unwanted persons, Smith said.
Motor vehicle thefts were up 15.6% in 2023, with 1,174 thefts reported compared to 1,016 thefts in 2022 and 657 thefts reported in 2021, according to the department.
There were 471 calls reporting shots fired in 2023, a 5% decrease from 496 calls reported in 2022, according to police data.
More hires in mental health team
Last year Smith said a department priority was to “bring back and hire more members” of the Behavioral Mental Health Contact Team, which works with the Community Safety Resource Team, which seeks to connect people to mental health resources and medical care instead of taking them to jail or sending them to overcrowded emergency rooms. The BMHCT also works to address the root causes of neighborhood problems, homelessness and criminal activity, he said.
In 2023 the BMHCT responded to 123 care response episodes, facilitated 113 new admissions to behavioral health resources as well as 70 re-admissions to programs for further treatment, according to Smith’s presentation.
Smith said since the state legislature limited the criteria for police pursuits in 2021 the Lakewood Police Department has seen “a significant problem” with criminals eluding police and refusing to stop their vehicle after being informed to stop.
In 2021 the department recorded 96 eluding incidents, compared to 320 incidents in 2022 and 337 incidents in 2023.
The department is asking the legislature to make refinements to the pursuit policy to allow for the pursuit of stolen vehicles and allow local jurisdictions to continue with their current individual pursuit policies, “if they consider that to be the best choice for their community,” according to Smith’s presentation.
Chief says ban on public drug use “made a difference”
In response to a council question about Lakewood’s aggravated assault numbers, Smith said, “We are for the first time in a long time seeing more stranger-on-stranger crimes” between people who are not related. Smith said the crime statistics do include investigations of patient-on-patient assaults at Western State Hospital, “and we have seen those numbers increase a little bit over time.”
Smith said in terms of areas of Lakewood that have higher concentrated crime rates, “I don’t know that we have any increase in those areas.”
In response to another council question about the effectiveness of a ban on public drug use in Lakewood last year, Smith said that has anecdotally “made a difference” and discouraged some illegal activity.
“The evolution of crime is the evolution of life,” Smith said. “It changes from year to year.”
