Crime Decreases as Takoma Park Police Change Arrest Focus

Total arrests in Takoma Park declined between the years 2015 through 2020 in part because police “moved away from focusing on low level non-public safety of life offenses and instead focused on addressing burglaries, robberies, auto thefts, thefts from autos, domestic violence etc.,” according to its newly-released report.

There were 1,911 arrests made or citations issued during those years, of which 78% involved criminal arrests. Most of the criminal arrests were for outstanding warrants. Most of the traffic arrests involved driving under the influence.

In 2015, 328 arrests were made. In 2020, there were 161, according to the report.

According to the U.S. Census, as of July 1, 2019, Takoma Park’s population consisted of 50.5% Whites, 33% Blacks or African Americans and 11.6% Hispanic or Latino. Blacks represented 52.7% of the arrests. About 34% of the other people arrested were Hispanic and 13.3% were White, according to the report.

Takoma Park residents made up about 20% of the people criminally arrested and 8.4% of those receiving traffic arrests. Of those local residents arrested, 55% live in Wards 5 and 6. many of the others arrested live in Silver Spring, Hyattsville and Washington, D.C.

This just in…@ChiefDeVaul announces the release of Arrest and Traffic Stop Data from 2015-2020 and Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) calls from 2018-2020.

Learn more: https://t.co/iL0iqEai94 pic.twitter.com/l2TgqGSwQx

— TakomaParkMD (@TakomaParkMD) August 27, 2021

About Suzanne Pollak

Suzanne is a freelance reporter with Montgomery Community Media. She has over 35 years professional experience writing for newspapers, magazines, non-profit newsletters and the web.

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