Overall arrests about average in Charles City for 2018

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

This past year was about average in terms of crimes and arrests within the city limits of Charles City, police said.

There were 9,802 calls for service that the Charles City Police Department handled in 2018, including traffic stops. That generated 503 incident reports by the CCPD.

“If we could have zeroes on everything that would be a perfect world. That’s not going to happen,” said CCPD Captain Brandon Franke.

There were 32 OWI (operating while intoxicated) arrests made in the past calendar year. There were also 14 persons charged with public intoxication.

“That’s not how many calls we responded to for that particular thing. That’s how many people got arrested or charged,” said Police Chief Hugh Anderson.

Anderson, who has been a member of the police force in Charles City for close to 25 years, said that in the 1990s drunken driving arrests sometimes reached over 100 per year in Charles City.

He said last year’s total of 32 drunk driving arrests is down from the average yearly total, and he credits tougher laws in the last 20 years that have helped keep intoxicated drivers off the road.

“We appreciate that people aren’t driving while intoxicated. They’re either getting rides, ride-sharing or finding another way home rather than driving,” said Anderson.

There were 28 arrests for possession of a controlled substance. With the addition of Charles City’s new narcotics dog, Jordy, that number could change, according to Anderson. With increased enforcement, that number might trend up, but then drop again after people realize it’s not worth the effort to either use or deal illegal drugs, he said.

There was one statistic from the annual report that Anderson said was relatively high and that was the number of assaults — 44.

“We don’t want people to think you come to Charles City and you’re going to get assaulted,” said Anderson. “I can’t even guess on a number, but I would say the majority of those, the assailant knew the victim and vice versa.”

Franke said assault charges range from domestic incidents to simple assault to felony charges.

“From someone slapping someone to someone stabbing someone, it’s all included in that number,” said Franke. “A large number were the domestic type.”

There were also nine violations of a no-contact order.

Anderson said the four charges for burglary during the calendar year was below average. There were 31 persons charged with theft.

There was one attempted murder charge, in November. That arrest came after Jennifer Katherine Bean, 44, of Charles City, allegedly injected her mother with insulin without her consent.

Overall, Franke said, the numbers don’t particularly stand out and reflect a typical year of arrests.

“For the most part it would be on the average. Obviously, other than the attempted murder. We don’t necessarily get those every year, and thankfully,” said Franke.