The leaders of Bloomington’s police and fire departments presented reports to the city council on Monday night, summarizing their performance over the past year.
Police chief Jamal Simington praised the BPD for its efforts, handling about 69,000 calls for service and 10,000 traffic stops in 2022, leading to a total of 1,637 arrests.
PDF: Read the entire BPD annual report for 2022
Violent crime as a whole was flat or down compared to 2021; there were 3% fewer assaults, about 30% fewer abductions and sex crimes, and 17% fewer robberies (although theft rose by 19%).
However, Simington and council members were both concerned by a rise in gun-related crime.
Council member Mollie Ward pointed out that modified automatic weapons and home-assembled “ghost guns” were part of a significant increase in firearm offenses, including a 35% increase in shootings and a 54% increase in seizures of illegally held weapons.
“Across the board, it appears that because of the availability of guns, both within communities, they come from other states into communities, where there’s a demand there’s a source,” Simington said. “And so it’s important for us again to have a finger on the pulse.”
Simington emphasized effective use of technology and community trust as tools the department will use to combat gun-related crime.
The report also emphasized community outreach and recruiting efforts, meeting with groups like the NAACP, The Immigration Project, Prairie Pride Coalition, representatives of multiple religious groups, and local food banks. While 21 officers were hired in 2022, the department plans to continue with recruiting a diverse group of personnel in the future, Simington said.
Bloomington Fire Department annual report
Second to the podium was Bloomington Fire Chief Eric West, whose department handled about 13,000 incidents in 2022 — a 2.3% increase from the year prior. Of these, about 10,000 were for emergency medical services, and the remaining were responding to 3,000 fires.
West said the department’s response times aren’t where he’d like them to be. For fire calls, the aim is to be on site in 5 minutes, 20 seconds or less, 90% of the time. For EMS calls, the goal is 5 minutes flat. Right now, those numbers sit at 6:26 and 7:18, respectively. According to West, more or better located stations are the likely solution for bringing down driving times.
“As we get bigger, our services have to expand, too. This is the one thing we’re looking at now. In the past, we didn’t probably do a good job of locating some of our stations; they could have been in a better spot, which might have helped us now,” West said.
Indeed, the report’s data shows that while three of the city’s stations handled between 2,000 and 3,000 incidents in 2022, the remaining two handled more than 5,000 and fewer than 300, respectively.
2022 also saw upgrades to the department’s equipment, including a new ambulance with built-in ultrasound and improved dispatch communication. Initiatives continuing into 2023 include measures to improve the physical and mental health of first-responders and recruiting new members.
