SIKESTON -- The Sikeston Department of Public Safety had a busier year in 2010 than 2009 but crime seems to be down for the most part.
The city's crime statistics for 2010 as compared with 2009 were recently released as part of a special year-end review edition of the "Sikeston Scanner."
"Those statistics are from the Uniform Crime Report statistics submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation annually," said DPS Capt. John Martin.
DPS reportedly saw a 33.5 percent increase in the number of service calls last year as compared with 2009 having gone from 18,351 to 24,507.
"That includes everything: business walk-throughs, vehicle stops -- it's everything the department does," Martin said. "It fluctuates annually; those numbers do vary from year to year."
As there are fluctuations, officials are hesitant to identify a drop or increase in any category as being a clear indication of a trend but do find some of the statistics encouraging.
While DPS had to respond to a lot more calls, fewer arrests were made. In 2009 there were 2,416 arrests by DPS but only 1,855 in 2010, a drop of about 23 percent.
For the complete article and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition.