OCEAN CITY – An uptick in traffic citations and a decrease in custodial arrests and drug citations highlighted a report on police activity.
On Monday, Ocean City Police Chief Ross Buzzuro presented members of the Ocean City Police Commission with an update on police activity for the month of April.
The department reported officer calls for service decreased from 2,801 in April 2022 to 1,134 in April 2023, while citizen calls for service increased from 791 to 959.
In the top 25 calls for service, Buzzuro noted traffic stops increased from 550 to 738, 911 hangups increased from 110 to 200, and citizen assists decreased from 196 to 94.
“Assist citizens is down significantly,” Mayor Rick Meehan noted.
Buzzuro said the reported decrease had to do with activity on the Boardwalk.
“In the last couple of years before that, we were experiencing calls for service for issues such as Boardwalk street performers and things like that …,” he explained. “So we hadn’t really experienced that in April of 2023 as we had in previous years. And we’re still coming out of some COVID-related activities.”
Buzzuro also reported disorderly calls had remained consistent at 72, while calls for suspicious person or activities had decreased from 81 to 65 and collisions had increased from 44 to 56.
“Collisions were slightly up, 56 this year versus 44 last year,” he told the commission. “And we’re fairly consistent with 2021 at 60.”
Under April enforcement, custodial arrests decreased from 116 in 2022 to 83 in 2023, drug arrests decreased from 16 to 13, and marijuana citations decreased from 12 to 3. Buzzuro added that DUI arrests decreased from 23 to 15, and weapons arrests decreased from 15 to 10.
“Within that number, there were seven for firearms, one for knives and two for other,” he said.
Commission members commended the police department for its efforts.
“It looks very good,” Mayor Rick Meehan said.
