OCEAN CITY – A decrease in police activity highlighted a review of statistics for the month of September.
On Wednesday, Ocean City Police Chief Ross Buzzuro presented members of the Ocean City Police Commission with an update on police activity for the month of September.
Reviewing statistics from September of 2020, 2021 and 2022, Buzzuro noted that officer calls for service decreased from 3,504 in 2020 to 2,072 in 2022, while citizen calls for service decreased from 2,472 in 2020 to 1,588 in 2022.
“There’s movement in the right direction in those two areas …,” he said. “They continue to drop in the right direction.”
In the top 25 calls for service, the Ocean City Police Department reported traffic stops decreased from 1,954 in 2020 and 1,827 in 2021 to 883 in 2022, and disorderly calls decreased from 905 in 2020 and 427 in 2021 to 185 in 2022.
Buzzuro noted several factors, including special event activity in September, accounted for the high activity numbers witnessed in 2020.
“September 2020 was a very busy month,” he said, “especially the last couple of days.”
He also highlighted the police department’s efforts.
“Most of the calls in 2022 are lower than they were in previous years …,” he said. “There was a difference in this year versus the last two years, caused by the special event zone and regular enforcement.”
Buzzuro also noted a decrease in domestic incidents and collisions. He added that calls for suspicious person or activity had also decreased from 144 in 2020 and 133 in 2021 to 92 in 2022.
“It’s about, give or take, a 30% drop-off,” he said.
Under September enforcement, the department reported arrests decreased from 455 in 2020 and 278 in 2021 to 193 in 2022, while drug arrests steadily declined from 24 to 17.
Overall, Buzzuro credited the decline in activity to proactive enforcement measures.
“Within the top 25 calls for service, most of them have been lowered, some considerably …,” he said. “It’s evidence of a pretty productive month for us in terms of enforcement.”
Buzzuro added that the department had also reported its crime statistics to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.
Also, the last couple of days we have forwarded our crime reports and statistics to the FBI UCR,” he said. “We’ve had one of the lowest Septembers we’ve had in years.”
Councilman Lloyd Martin, committee chair, also recognized the police department for its efforts.
“Things are going in the right direction, and it’s been doing that,” he said. “All the efforts you guys have put into H2Oi, or the pop-up events, it really helped … It’s important.”
