City of Lakewood Police Department Releases 2021 Annual Report

Data shows crime on downward trend from five years ago

 The City of Lakewood Police Department has released its Annual Report, detailing data and trends in the city for 2021. The report shows that despite national trends of rising crime in the U.S., offenses in Lakewood are generally flat or lower than they were previously over a five-year lookback period.

“After crunching the numbers, we were encouraged to see that crime in Lakewood is actually lower in many areas compared to five years ago,” said Police Chief Kevin Kaucheck. “This was especially true for violent crimes like assault, robbery, and burglary, but also for quality of life property crimes like theft.”

Chief Kaucheck noted that the trend of crime being flat or trending downward in Lakewood contrasts with what was seen nationally when the FBI released its most recent annual uniform crime report. “The FBI’s most recent data showed that after reaching a low point in violent crimes in 2014, there has been a concerning uptick in violent crime nationally,” he said. “That has been especially true over the past two years with all of the safety challenges that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. So Lakewood’s trendlines are actually going against the national uptick in offenses.”

While Lakewood’s data is encouraging, Chief Kaucheck noted that they are not resting on their laurels. “Our department is continuing to work on finding ways of improving, and partnering with Mayor George to refine our strategy,” he said.  “We did see some high profile incidents in 2021, but we have had a very high clearance rate on those matters, with almost all of them having a named offender we are pursuing or an active criminal indictment.”

Mayor Meghan George confirmed Chief Kaucheck’s comments about their joint efforts to innovate and keep improving safety in Lakewood. “Safety remains the number one priority for Lakewood and for my administration,” said Mayor Meghan George. “In a perfect world, our city would be crime free, but it’s still heartening to see the data in the annual report, which indicates that the safety-related investments and strategic plan we’ve implemented over the past two years are paying off.”

Mayor George pointed to the city’s willingness to adjust its deployment tactics – by increasing patrols in key areas and paying overtime when necessary – has been paired with investments to provide additional and upgraded equipment that help officers be more effective. “Lakewood has invested in gear like radios, flashlights, and vehicles, but the most impactful new resource are the 40 new cameras that we installed citywide that are crucial to prevention and investigation,” said Mayor George. “Those cameras have directly led to numerous cases of serious crime being solved, and that is the very reason why we installed them.”

The city is currently exploring additional methods to be creative in ensuring that safety capacity is maintained, and looking at ways that non-officers can help with keeping eyes on the community to make Lakewood safer while allowing officers to concentrate on dealing with direct calls for service and follow up on crimes.

“My administration takes a holistic view on crime prevention, so part of our strategy in Lakewood includes things like dedicating dollars to homelessness prevention and crisis intervention that can prevent crime and reduce the need for incarceration,” she said. “I think this is in line with the values and character of our community.”

Click here to read the 2021 Annual Report from the Lakewood Police Department.