This study session focused on the Erie Police Department's mid-year crime statistics, overtime reduction efforts, grant-funded positions, and the proposed 2027 budget. Council members and command staff discussed data-driven policing, community initiatives, and long-term fiscal planning.
And so there'll be other recommendations that will come from there. But with that, I'll go ahead and Mike pass over to very brief brief. Just first, we have just some of our first half criminal data set comparisons. This is the crime stats. So we're we're just off of that. But this is mid-year. Obviously, you can see homicides. Obviously, we had a the tragedy of the three juveniles in a house. Homicides are overall we're trending down. Shots fired and people shot are both trending down. We have uh obviously 2022 numbers here all the way to 2026. Uh in 2022, we had 145 people shot, which was uh a terrible number, uh, down to 31 and uh excuse me, shots fired and people shot 29 and then three so far in the first half. Recovered and stolen firearms, uh stolen firearms are down and recovered stolen firearms are up. So that's actually a step that we we we do like to use that we're we are recovering more stolen firearms. Uh aggravated assaults and robberies are both down. It's been trending down for some time. Next page we have burglary, theft from motor vehicles, thefts, motor vehicle thefts, fraud, and forgery. Everything um has been trending down since 2022. Um sexual cases, uh sex offenses. Uh unfortunately, like you said, we do still have work to do. Uh sex offenses are trending up. We're at 139 this year so far, as opposed to 117 and 81 uh rapes are trending down though and have been trending down for some time. Uh arsons are trending down, but unfortunately the UIs are trending up. Next, um in May of this year, um we we reimagined and restarted our our narcotics unit. Uh it's the sting units, the special tactics intelligence and narcotics group. Uh this is a data-driven approach to uh narcotics um intelligence and narcotics work. Uh I just wanted to let you know what these guys have done since May. Uh they have seized 8.88 pounds of methamphetamine with uh low street value of 63,000 up to 300,000 dollars worth of meth. They've tryed 5.136 pounds of cocaine. You can see the street values there. Fentanyl, this is the one that take take a real close look at. They've seized 18 pounds of fentanyl, almost uh you know, up to a million, a million and a half dollars worth of fentanyl off the street. Marijuana, they've uh 19.29 pounds. Uh so a total of 51.45 pounds. The the red the lettering is what I want to draw your attention to. The according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, that 18.144 pounds of fentanyl has the potential to generate 4.165 million overdoses. Uh these guys have hit the ground running. Uh they've they've got the the drug dealers in the city running scared right now. Uh this is since May. This is a new group of officers that that we have on this unit, and they are doing outstanding work. They've seized $50,000 in in currency. They've recovered 16 stolen firearms. They've made 23 felony arrests and four misdemeanor arrests since May. So they are uh they are making a difference on the streets. Chief, if I may ask, yes, ma'am. Do we get to keep that 50,000? So we do. Umfortunate, unfortunately, it's it it takes years to get that back. It's it's tagged um as evidence. It's used in the cases, uh, statute of limitations.