St. Peters Police Release Annual Crime Report

fielded more calls in 2011 than it had in the previous nine years, however the number of crimes in the city is not on the rise.

During the June 28 meeting of the Board of Aldermen, St. Peters Police Major Jeff Finkelstein presented the 2011 Police Annual Report. The report, a collection of facts and statistics from the previous years, showed the police responded to 32,181 calls in 2011—up from 30,519 in 2010. 

Finkelstein said that, despite the increase in calls, the number of incidents reported actually went down from 3,072 in 2010 to 2,817 in 2011. He said that a big reason the increase in calls was an increase in public trust. He said more people were relying on police to provide services like wellness checks.

The report provided a breakdown of crimes committed by type:

Finkelstein said in 2011 the most cases ever—451—were assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division. Despite fielding more than 100 more cases than in 2010, St. Peters detectives actually cleared a higher number of cases in 2011. Of the 451 cases assigned, 378 were cleared—an 84 percent success rate. In 2010 the clearance rate was 81 percent. 

While the total number of crimes were down, the traffic crashes went up. St. Peters Police dealt with 1,211 crashes that damaged property, up from 901 in 2010. Crashed that had injuries increased from 250 in 2010 to 277 in 2011.

The worst month for traffic crashes was December. Police responded to 22 involving injury and 148 involving property damage.

Along with accidents, St. Peters Police 195 D.W.I incidents in 2011—down from 246 in 2010.

Photo-enforced incidents also declined in 2011. Police reported 3,891 incidents last year and 5,674 in 2010. 

The crime report, in its entirety can be found on the Police Department's website.