Dover PD solves crime despite major increase in 2018

DOVER, Del. –  2018 proved to be a dangerous year for the City of Dover with a major spike in violent crime and an increase in calls for service.

If you want to see just how different 2018 was from 2017 in the city of Dover, it’s all in the numbers. In 2017,  there was 265 cases of violent crime, in 2018 there was a total of 346.

“We saw our numbers rise slightly and I know people say 30 percent is not a slight increase, but when we have a tremendous year like we had in 2017, that’s very hard to repeat those things,” explains Master Cpl. Mark Hoffman of the Dover Police Dept.

2018 proving to be a challenging and busy year for the Dover Police Department, not only did they see a 30 percent spike in violent crime, but their calls for service jumped just over 43,000, 204 more than 2017.

“That’s a huge number for a police department in a population of our size.”

Other numbers were up across the board including property crime, meanwhile the police department had their own set of challenges.

“Our authorized strength unit is 101 officers. I believe at this current time we’re down three officers from that but throughout the year we’ve been down as many as seven or eight”

Despite the lack of officers, Dover PD was still able to solve a lot of their cases. To be exact 82 percent of all robberies and 74 percent of all burglaries and that’s well above the national average.

“I think that can bring a lot of calm to the citizens of Dover, when they see that number 30 percent but they also see those clearance rates then they know the police are on it. And they know when you commit a crime in Dover we’re 9 times out of 10 going to catch our guy,” exclaims Hoffman.

So for 2019 Dover PD is hoping to fill their vacant positions, expand community engagement and continue to solve crime.