GREENFIELD — As officials from the Greenfield Police Department (GPD) head into the new year, their main goal is to continue to make the growing city a safe community to live, work and visit, GPD Chief Brian Hartman said.
However, 2023 kept the force of 44 officers busier than ever. The department had a total of 502 arrests in 2022 and were already at 502 arrests through the end of November before adding 73 criminal arrests in December for a total of 575 arrests in 2023.
“A lot of this has to do with the officers being proactive in traffic enforcement and security checks,” Hartman said.
Total call numbers and runs for GPD officers in 2023 year were up substantially from 2022, Deputy Chief Chuck McMichael noted.
McMichael said the department had 24,858 calls in 2022. With a whopping 2,326 calls in December alone, the department ended up with 28,815 calls in 2023.
Hartman noted that with an increase in traffic enforcement comes an increase in arrests. They had 4,977 traffic stops in 2022 and ended up with 6,512 traffic stops in 2023.
“This can come from warrant arrests, driving while suspended, and operating while intoxicated to mention a few,” Hartman said.
The only positive number going down was the use of Narcan by officers trying to save lives. The number of incidents were down in 2023.
“We used 26 doses in 2022 and only 18 through November,” McMichael said.
That indicates fewer people are overdosing on illegal drugs. The department reported late this week there were zero uses of Narcan by officials during the month of December, keeping the 2023 year total at 18.
However, due to an increase in drug and gun crimes in the area in 2023, GPD added a second detective to the force focusing primarily on the illegal use of drugs and guns. McMichael noted that has led to many arrests, not just in Greenfield, but throughout Central Indiana.
“Many of those arrested were children under 18,” McMichael said. “These investigations have led to the discovery of many stolen guns and ‘switches’ that turn semi-automatic guns into automatic machine guns.”
Another troubled area, the department saw domestic violence calls becoming more and more violent.
“It’s concerning for the victims as they have had to live in fear and abuse for some time before we are ever made aware of the situation,” Hartman said. “It is sad that it gets to the point that someone is almost killed before we are made aware of an abuse situation.”
A few domestic incidents have led to guns being fired with no one injured and one person shot during a domestic incident in December.
“We also had the case earlier in December that involved a man intentionally ramming his victim’s car repeatedly then abducting her after her car was so damaged it wouldn’t move any more,” McMichael said.
In August, officials investigated a shooting that resulted in a teen being shot by another teen.
“We made it clear we will not stand for that here in our community,” Hartman said. “The officers and the detectives of this department put in long hours week after week to help curb this problem, and they did an excellent job in working these cases and to the point everyone involved was held accountable.
In September 2023, GPD rolled out a new program called Tip411. It is an anonymous tip service available through smart phones, the department web page and text messaging which allows people to submit tips to police.
“These tips have helped clear missing person cases and led to identification of suspects in various cases,” McMichael said. “We encourage people to continue sending us tips about things going on when they see it.”
McMichael noted while the department always responds to incidents, they can not be everywhere and see everything, so it’s important that they continue to work together with the community to keep everyone safe.
“We also know that small issues turn into bigger ones if not addressed early on,” McMichael said.
While department officials say they are still working on goals for 2024, the police force is committed to staying on top of whatever types of increases in crimes occur.
“We will never stop working to bring those who commit crimes to justice and enforce traffic laws to keep everyone safe on our streets and highways,” McMichael said.
With the start of the new year, Hartman said he is always keeping an eye on staffing issues and continues to track the needs of the community.
“We will look to add more officers as the City of Greenfield continues to grow,” Hartman said. “We have a relatively safe community, but we are growing and with growth sometimes comes problems.”
