Crime in Toledo is down in all categories so far this year, according to Police Chief Mike Troendle, who gave a police department report before the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform committee on Tuesday.
“As of this morning, every category that we track is down,” Chief Troendle said. “We are seeing a 13 percent reduction in auto theft, 5 percent reduction in burglary, 4 percent reduction in homicide, a 5 percent reduction in robbery, a 17 percent reduction in shooting incidents, and 29 percent reduction in theft of motor vehicles. We’re also seeing a 4 percent reduction in persons shot.”
All of the department’s crime reduction strategies appear to be working, he said, including two foot-patrol areas in the city.
“Those are wildly popular and effective ways for us to not only reduce crime but connect to communities and have officers on the streets every single day,” the chief said. “Every month, we choose a different area to expand our foot patrol, bike patrol, and crime reduction strategies.”
Team initiatives this year have increased police presence and help fight crime in neighborhoods, he said.
“We will be launching another one shortly with an area to be announced soon. The first one went well. We ramped up our partnerships with other city services and had a larger presence out there cleaning up streets, debris, and doing beautification efforts. That continues to be a great program for us and we will continue to do that as well.”
Also in his report, Chief Troendle noted an increase in recruitment of new cadets this year compared to last year.
“We have 621 members in the department, including 30 cadets in the academy. As of today, we’ve had 43 people leave the department, most through retirements. We’ve had 11 quit the department, and six quit the academy,” he said. “With that, we just concluded our recruitment efforts on July 31. I am happy to say we are up significantly over this time last year.”
A total of 603 people applied to become officers, up 16 percent from last year, he said.
“Of those 603, we had 338 who tested, which is up 31 percent last year, and we had 305 who passed, which is an increase of 35 percent from last year,” he said. “In 2023, we only had 226 who even passed the test, which significantly reduces our ability to hire because that is one of the first and easiest steps in the process. I am optimistic that we’re going to have a lot of people to interview this year, and have a good class for next year.”
Of those who took the test and passed, 39 percent are persons of color, he said.
“So we did specifically target minority recruitment and made concerted efforts to try and increase that number. So far, so good. We’re pretty excited about minority recruitment,” Chief Troendle said.
Officials from Toledo Fire and Rescue also gave a report on their department.
Assistant Fire Chief John Kaminski said he was pleased there are 30 people in training, including females, African-Americans, and Hispanics.
“We’re excited about it because it will get our staffing levels in a good position until next year,” Mr. Kaminski said.
The department instituted an advanced life support conversion on Aug. 5. Lucas County commissioners in March approved an agreement that turned over control of county-wide emergency medical services to Toledo and area communities in early August.
“We’ll be able to update you with some good solid data at your December meeting,” Mr. Kaminski said.
Bryce Blair, deputy chief of operations, said the department so far this year has responded to 36,924 incidents compared to 61,300 in 2023.
“This is a normal year for us,” Mr. Blair said. “Eighty-five percent of the incidents is EMS, and 15 percent is fire.”
The department has spent more than $95,000 for maintenance and repair from the general fund for its 25 buildings, and $1.2 million in capital improvement funds for maintenance and repair, he said.
Councilman John Hobbs III, chairman of the committee, said when he was first on council a few years ago, he received emails regarding firefighters not showing up at stations, creating a shortfall.
“Some fire stations did not have enough people coming to work. Has that been an issue with the stations?” Mr. Hobbs asked.
“It’s only happened a couple of times this year when we were unable to get people in,” Mr. Kaminski said. “We ran short for a period of time until we could get members to come in. But all in all, the fire department stepped up, working extra to make sure we’re staffed at 113.”
Mr. Blair agreed, saying, “It hasn’t happened that frequently this summer.”
The department’s contract requires a minimum of 113 firefighters be on duty at all times.
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