GALION, Ohio — Galion’s Police Department’s crime statistics from 2014 to 2015 show a decrease in overall crime of 14 percent.
“We also had a decrease in service calls last year,” Galion’s Chief of Police Brian Saterfield said. He said in 2014, the police department had 9,864, compared to 9,090 in 2015. “That’s an average of two fewer calls per day.”
Drug-related calls decreased in 2015 from 136 calls to 123. However, a percentage increase is shown between the two years because of the accompanying decrease in the total number of Part A Offenses — 2014 saw 1,142, whereas 2015 only saw 947.
“We were better as a county to combat the drug problem and the associated issues with that. We formed a special response team and we did a lot of search warrants that had to do with drugs. I think the community could see that we take a no-nonsense approach to our crime issues,” Saterfield said.
The Crawford County Special Response Team is made of four officers and a detective from Galion. The rest are from Bucyrus and Crawford County.
“We still have our thefts and a lot of our crime is associated with drug problems. But we’re making gains on the drug problem … we’re not naive to say it’s gone altogether,” Saterfield said.
According to Saterfield, Galion Police Department is authorized for 18 officers. They are currently up to 16, with two in training and expected to hit the streets in March or April.
Here’s how the numbers broke down between the two years. Scroll over the graphs to read exact numbers.
