TOLEDO, Ohio — As hospital workers remain busy dealing with coronavirus, the crime caseload has slowed for Toledo police and detectives.
In the period between March 9 to March 23 of this year compared to last year, the department has responded to fewer burglaries, robberies and vehicle thefts.
In 2019, there were 77 burglaries compared to 66 in 2020, 28 robberies compared to 11, and 77 vehicle thefts compared to 47.
Detectives have also been assigned fewer felony crimes.
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The numbers for these crimes may have lowered because more people are at home and stores are closed which lowers crime of opportunity, however, shootings have gone up, according to police.
In 2019, there were 14 shootings between March 9 and March 23. In 2020, there were 42.
"That's simply because of the Shotspotter program that alerts us to 80% more shootings than we were getting 911 calls. That's something we knew and expected going into the program," Toledo Police Department spokesperson Lt. Kellie Lenhardt said.
Shotspotter is a gunshot-audio detection program that has found success keeping guns off the streets. The program detects outdoor gunfire and sends an alert to officers.
More people are using the online and telephone reporting unit to report crimes as opposed to calling 911, according to Toledo police.
The department reported that it's hard to predict if this trend will continue.
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