Only 5 homicides reported in Decatur in 2024, lowest number since 2016

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - The Decatur Police Department is releasing its enforcement statistics for 2024.

Police Chief Shane Brandel told WAND News the department handled 52,895 incidents in 2024. That is a 5% increase from 2023.

Data is determined by two years' worth of quarterly surveys looking at traffic safety and violent crime.

"Much of what I will compare the stats to are against 2023 and 2021, when I became Chief of Police. Since 2021, we have made significant operational and structural changes in the department, helping us modernize and become a better agency," Chief Brandel said.

Speed Enforcement stops increased 14% from 2023 and a 200% increase from 2021. DPD made a total of 3500 stops for speeding in 2024.

Cell Phone Enforcement stops increased by 29% from 2023 and an increase of 137% from 2021.

Traffic Crash data that DPD has goes back 18 years to 2007. In 2023, Brandel said DPD had the lowest number of traffic crashes on record going back to 2007 (excluding 2020 due to pandemic).

Last year in 2024, traffic crashes went down again to an 18-year low with 2,337 crashes. In total, there has been a 28% decrease in traffic crashes from the 2007 high (3,244).

There was also an 11% decrease in personal injury crashes in 2024 from 2023. In 2024, it dropped to another 18-year low at 392. This is the lowest number of personal injury crashes going back to 2007 (with the high of 578 in 2007).

2021 saw a record high number of shootings at 179 with 81 people being shot. In 2023 there were 106 shootings with 57 people shot. In 2024, there were 99 shootings (a 45% decrease from 2021) with 33 people shot (a 59% decrease from 2021 and a 42% decrease from 2023).

In 2024, the CAT team seized 95 illegal guns from violent offenders. In the last 3 years, the CAT team had seized 248 guns from violent offenders.

The Decatur Police Department changed its deployment strategy with CAT in 2024 putting them on the street 7 days a week for 12 hours per day for about 9 months.

In 2022, there were 16 homicides. 2023 saw 15 homicides. In 2024, there were 5 homicides, the lowest number of homicides since 2016.

In 2024, DPD made changes to how it manages non-priority calls and when and how they are dispatched. "This change was made to be able to handle non-emergency calls faster to better serve the citizens, better manage the workload of officers and avoid backlogs of calls waiting to be dispatched," Brandel said.

The changes led to a 34% overall reduction in response times to non-emergency calls. DPD tracks time blocks in 4-hour periods, and there were significant reductions in all time blocks, ranging from 31%-47% reductions.

In 2024, Decatur police began working to restructure and reorganize the Investigations Division. The reorganization/restructure is now fully implemented. DPD also refocused/reimagined its case management strategy in order to be able to assign cases to detectives faster and identify/develop future detectives.

DPD also created a Tech Services Unit where detectives focus on technology related investigative matters (cell phone/computer analysis, digital mapping, video systems, etc). Brandel said this has led to a minimal or no backlog of cases to be assigned to detectives.

"DPD continues to work to improve our performance, effectiveness, and efficiency. We know we are not perfect, and we know we have areas we need to improve," Brandel said. "However, I am happy with the 2024 performance and results. I am proud of all the men and women at DPD and am honored to be a part of this organization. I appreciate all of the support from our community partners, including the local media. Without that support and collaboration, we cannot be as successful as we have been in such challenging times."