Demopolis Police releases annual report

Published 4:59 pm Wednesday, March 6, 2013

The Demopolis Police Department released their annual report for 2012, and many crimes were down in the city from 2011.

Most of the crimes that were higher in 2012 than 2011 were related to the poor economy.

DPD had 130 cases of negotiating with a worthless negotiable instrument in 2012 compared to just 60 in 2011, 13 cases of forgery compared to three, 17 cases of possession of a forged instrument compared to seven and 29 cases of unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle compared to two the previous year.

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All felony drug cases were down in 2012 from 2011. There were fewer cases of possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, possession of a synthetic and distribution of a controlled substance. There were also fewer misdemeanor drug cases in Demopolis in 2012.

For traffic violations, the number of DUI cases increased by two to 120 from 118. There were fewer violations for no proof of insurance, as that number dropped from 443 to 255. The number of speeding tickets also went down drastically, from 534 to 214, and seatbelt violations also dropped considerably, from 722 to 358.

The patrol division answered 7,862 calls during the year, and patrolmen made a total of 697 arrests. They also wrote 945 incident reports, 1,510 citations, eight handicapped parking tickets, 322 warning tickets, one criminal littering ticket and 224 accident reports with 62 injuries. Patrolmen worked a total of 5,676.75 hours of overtime in 2012.

During the Christmas holidays, the department, with the assistance of Dollar General, donated approximately 185 wrapped gifts to disadvantaged children. The officers also delivered baskets of goodies to the elderly in the Demopolis area.