MPD reports decrease in violent crime, increasing accidents

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) The number of violent crimes reported in Missoula had dropped in 2024 with the exception of sexual intercourse without approval. According to the Missoula Police Department, several victims with several victims reported one person.

Police chief Mike Colyer described the activities of his department in the previous year on Wednesday, in which the officials reacted to around 55,000 incidents. This included 36 robberies, 357 attacks and two murders.

“The demands for service have increased a little, but our violent crime has no longer failed,” he said. “Robbery has decreased by 2.7% and the assault has dropped by 3.5%. The only category is sexual intercourse without consent. We had a case that took into account many, many reported victims, and every reported victim and incident report.”

Of all incidents that lead to a reaction of police responsibility, traffic stops, suspicious activities and crashes were before the way. This year's data also reported more than 450 DUIS, 700 incidents with vandalism and 1,500 incidents with disordered behavior.

According to Colyer, the officials reacted to more than 2,860 traffic accidents, including 813 hit-and-run cases and 440 injury accidents. Among the most dangerous intersections in the city were the reserve Street and the Mullan Road, in which 41 accidents were followed by Brooks Street and Reserve, in which 27 accidents were.

According to Colyer, the reserve Street explains the majority of accidents with “high risk”.

“Eight of the top 10 accident locations in Missoula are in the reserve Street,” he said. “In the past two years, seven out of ten have been in the reserve. The other that jumps out is the 16% increase in calls.

In the detective department, Colyer said to crime on the five best studies regarding crimes against people, sexual crimes for adults, sexual crimes for children, partner attacks and child abuse.

In terms of drugs, Colyer said that meth and fentanyl were still the big seizures. With an increase in human trafficking, the department now measures its drug attacks by weight.

“We combined our powder and pill fits and this year had around 39,000 dosage uses of Fentanyl,” he said.

While the city of Missoula is moving to data to measure its needs and successes, Colyer said that his department strives to collect and analyze data. However, this can be a challenge if a traffic warning rejects a murder examination.

“I hope we can get better data to paint a picture of our workload,” he said. “I focus on how we can use the people we have to make a little smarter.”