While the Sterling Police Department‘s calls for service were up in 2025 when compared with the prior year, its police chief said criminal activity has lessened.

Sterling Police Chief Pat Bartel is crediting more eyes on crime, from increased staffing at the Sterling Police Department to more home security cameras, to a drop in crime in the city for 2025.

“It’s staffing, we are one short of being fully staffed right now. More people have home security cameras, doorbell cameras, and just the neighbors. People are paying attention and they know what and who should and should not be around their neighborhoods and their neighbors’ houses,” Bartel said.

With more houses and businesses and property owners utilizing surveillance cameras, Bartel said that has helped officers enormously.

“We can’t be everywhere all the time, so any assistance we get is always a plus and camera footage is hard to beat,” he said.

Bartel said residents and property owners have been cooperative when it comes to sharing camera footage.

“When we have a case or an incident in a neighborhood and our officers find places that have surveillance cameras or doorbell cameras, it’s rare that we go to those places and they won’t share the footage with us,” Bartel said.

The department answered 23,671 calls for service in 2025, up from 15,782 in 2024. One positive trend that Bartel spotlighted is a drop in traffic crashes.

The city went from 455 total traffic crashes in 2024 to 364 traffic crashes in 2025. The top collision locations in the city are First Avenue and Fourth Street and First Avenue and Wallace Street. Most traffic crashes in the city occurred from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and Tuesday is the day of the week when most traffic crashes occur in Sterling. Five of the 364 crashes were alcohol-related, he said.

The city saw Class A offenses drop 21% in 2025 from the year before, with 823 total calls in 2024 to 652 in 2025.

“Those are any crimes against a person, property or society,” Bartel said.

The top number of calls that officers responded to in 2025 were 911 calls and 911 hangups. SPD officers responded to 1,073 such calls and 911 hangups in 2025.

Suspicious person/auto/noise/prowler calls, at 861 calls, made up the second-highest number of calls in 2025.

SPD school resource officers Brad Johnson and Jordan Flaherty responded to 393 calls for service. They made 17 arrests, including 11 arrests for battery, three arrests for minors distributing indecent depictions of another via computer or electronic device, one arrest for unlawful possession of a weapon, one arrest for delivery of cannabis on school grounds and 10 city citations for possession of cannabis.

Other public complaints and calls for service made up 599 calls, with building checks at 415 calls and school zone patrol calls at 395 calls in 2025.

Sterling police answered 334 theft calls, including retail theft, in 2025, and 321 sex offender/registration calls.

The FBI directs how crime data is reported, using the National Incident Based Reporting System. That system recorded 11 a.m. as the busiest time of day for SPD and Thursday as the busiest day of the week.

According to NIBRS reporting metrics, SPD made 349 adult arrests and 43 juvenile arrests for a total of 392 arrests in 2025, compared to 447 in 2024.

Of those, 71.3% were male, 28.7% were female, 89.1% were adults and 10.9% were juveniles.