In his quarterly update presented to the Madison City Council Tuesday, police chief Mike Koval reported a drop in arrests and shots fired in the last four months of 2018.
Arrests in the fourth quarter of 2018 dropped by a count of 100 when compared to the same period in 2017, a decrease of about 5 percent. The number of shots fired incidents also decreased, with police reporting 42 in the last quarter of the year, down from 53.
Instances of heroin overdoses reported to the police dropped significantly, nearly 50 percent, though the report cautions many overdoses go unreported to police. Of the 49 reported overdoses in the fourth quarter, 10 were fatal. Though the end of the year saw improvement from 2017, the overall number of overdoses and overdose deaths increased in 2018 as a whole.
Also increasing was the yearly totals for both robberies and burglaries, up 17 and 14 percent, respectively.
Throughout the entire year, police responded to over 143,000 incidents, of which 217 required officers to use force. The report listed one incident — a non-lethal shooting in September — in which an officer had to fire a weapon.
In addition to accepting the report, the council also said goodbye to Ald. Amanda Hall, District 3, who announced her resignation in January because she planned to move out of her district. Following her resignation, the city announced they would not seek to appoint an interim alder to serve until the elections in April and appointed departing Ald. David Ahrens, District 15, to oversee her district as well.
