DOWAGIAC — Director of Public Safety Steve Grinnewald’s desk is often littered with papers and files relating to cases and business he has to attend to in 2020. However, Tuesday morning, one stack of papers next to his keyboard was all about 2019.

The Dowagiac Department of Public Safety recently released its 2019 annual report. The report, which is available to view online at cityofdowagiac.com or in person at the police station, 241 S. Front St., Dowagiac, details the number and types of calls the police department received during the year, lists the community events and trainings the department was involved in and revisits some of the biggest cases of the year.

“What we do is basically a summary of the last calendar year,” Grinnewald said. “We just like to give people an idea of what we do, how we do it, what we focus on and those kinds of things. We try to give a snapshot of who we are.”

The document reports that the Dowagiac Police Department, which has 13 full-time officers and one part-time officer, broke a record for the number of calls for service in 2019 with 8,192. That number is up from 7,822 in 2018.

Of those calls:

• one was for murder

• 46 were for a sex offense or rape

• five were for robbery

• 34 were for aggravated or felony assault

• 44 were for burglary or illegal entry

• 161 were for larceny or theft

• 26 were for motor vehicle theft

• one for was attempted

kidnapping

The statistics for those crimes varied from the numbers reported in 2018. The number of sex offenses increased by 76 percent, felonious assaults increased by 9 percent, and motor vehicle thefts increased by 136 percent. Larcenies decreased by 9 percent.

Traffic citations also increased by 37 percent, while traffic accidents decreased by 25 percent.

Grinnewald said an increase or decrease in statistics from year to year does not necessarily mean that the actual number of crimes committed increased or decreased. Instead, it all comes down to how many people are willing to report.

“Most of the numbers we see are just what is reported,” he said. “I can’t really explain why except that last year we had more people report it. I don’t know why that is or what the reasoning behind that is.”

Grinnewald said the total number of reported calls was average for the past few years.

Also, according to the annual report, the Dowagiac Fire Department broke its own record for number of calls with 315, up from 260 in 2018.

Grinnewald said he was proud of the way his officers and firefighters handled cases and investigations in 2019.

“I’m very proud of how hard they work, and everyone takes things very seriously,” he said. “Everyone goes the extra mile, the extra step. For the most part, I think our guys do a very good job, the fire department as well. Any call they get, I’m very confident they will get there quickly, and they will take care of it.”

One of the things Grinnewald was most proud of was the way the department interacted with the community, attending several events, including National Night Out, Coffee with a Cop, The Cass County Fair, the Open Header Cruise, among a more than dozen other events.

“We are a part of the community, so we try to find ways to connect,” he said. “We try very hard to be a part of the community that we serve. We don’t exist without the community, without the public. We have to remember who it is we work for.”

Now looking forward to the rest of 2020, Grinnewald said he wants to continue and expand the work the department does.

“We want to do everything we can to do more for the community,” he said. “We want to keep growing, keep getting better, keep working on that relationship with our public and the community that we serve.”