Crime Trends In Lakewood: Police Release Annual Report

LAKEWOOD, OH — Certain violent crimes and property crimes increased slightly from 2020 to 2021 in Lakewood, according to the police department's latest annual report. However, the general pattern for violent crimes has held relatively steady since 2018.

"Overall, our violent crime has been pretty even [over the past five years]," Police Chief Kevin Kaucheck told Patch. "Our property crimes actually decreased last year, even though our burglaries were up."

The report examined the past five years and compared totals for different categories of crimes. While some categories saw increases or decreases between 2020 and 20201, no category matched its high in 2017.

For example, the new report shows robberies, burglaries, and assaults all increased from 2020 to 2021. However, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts were down dramatically year-over-year.

Mayor Meghan George said her administration has focused on increasing patrols in key areas and paying overtime when necessary. The city has also invested in new gear, including: radios, flashlights and police vehicles. The most impactful new resource, George said, "are the 40 new cameras that we installed citywide that are crucial to prevention and investigation. Those cameras have directly led to numerous cases of serious crime being solved, and that is the very reason why we installed them.”

The full annual report can be viewed online. Here are some key stats from the report:

Violent crimes:

“Our department is continuing to work on finding ways of improving, and partnering with Mayor George to refine our strategy,” Kaucheck 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.”

Murder:

• 2017 — 2
• 2018 — 2
• 2019 — 0
• 2020 — 1
• 2021 — 1

Rape:

• 2017 — 6
• 2018 — 6
• 2019 — 6
• 2020 — 9
• 2021 — 2

Robbery:

• 2017 — 40
• 2018 — 30
• 2019 — 28
• 2020 — 30
• 2021 — 35

Aggravated assault:

• 2017 — 46
• 2018 — 25
• 2019 — 31
• 2020 — 29
• 2021 — 33

Property crime:

Burglary:

• 2017 — 473
• 2018 — 109
• 2019 — 78
• 2020 — 62
• 2021 — 82

Larceny/theft:

• 2017 — 667
• 2018 — 531
• 2019 — 519
• 2020 — 602
• 2021 — 424

Motor vehicle theft:

• 2017 — 81
• 2018 — 59
• 2019 — 52
• 2020 — 92
• 2021 — 57

Felony Arrests

• 2020 — 218
• 2021 — 230

Misdemeanor Arrests

• 2020 — 1,179
• 2021 — 1,058

Traffic Arrests

• 2020 — 1,934
• 2021 — 2,294

Total crisis intervention calls to Lakewood Police decreased:

• 2020 — 160
• 2021 — 78

Drug overdoses:

Total overdoses decreased in Lakewood last year, a trend that started in 2018 and has continued through 2021.

• 2017
  • Total overdoses — 123
  • Fatal overdoses — 20
• 2018
  • Total overdoses — 93
  • Fatal overdoses — 23
• 2019
  • Total overdoses — 89
  • Fatal overdoses — 14
• 2020
  • Total overdoses — 89
  • Fatal overdoses — 18
• 2021
  • Total overdoses — 67
  • Fatal overdoses — 21

“Safety remains the number one priority for Lakewood and for my administration,” George said. “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.”