Birmingham police issue 2024 annual report
By Grace Lovins
The Birmingham Police Department (BPD) has released its annual report for 2024, detailing key trends in crime, staffing and operations over the last year, and showing a drop by 24 percent of overall crime.
According to the report put together by BPD’s chief Scott Grewe, operations captain Ryan Kearney, services captain Greg Wald and investigations captain Chris Koch, the number of case reports assigned for investigation in 2024 dropped by 48 cases for a total 655 cases in 2024. Fraud and larceny incidents accounted for a significant portion of these cases.
In total, Grewe writes in the report, crime in Birmingham decreased in 2024 by about 24 percent.
“The proactive police work by our officers, both in patrol and the investigations departments, has undoubtedly positively impacted the overall crime report numbers. However, these efforts are not only the result of our police officers but also the results of an engaged community,” Grewe wrote.
Despite the overall decline in investigations, the department saw an increase in adult in-custody arrests, rising by 27 cases to a total of 204 in 2024 compared to 177 in 2023. Juvenile arrest dispositions also increased by 14 cases for a total of 54 in 2024 compared to 40 in 2023.
Public safety communication remained an important function of the department as dispatchers handled a total of 50,178 incoming calls in 2024. Among those calls, 90 were text-to-911 messages, 8,310 were emergency 911 calls and 41,778 were non-emergency calls.
Traffic and parking enforcement experienced a notable shift in the number of violations issued for the year. The number of parking violations issues decreased by approximately 5,000 citations for a total of 28,897 citations. On the other hand, the number of vehicle crashes increased by 40 incidents. Fortunately, the number of fatal accidents has remained zero in 2024 and the previous year.
The BPD saw changes both externally and internally with a number of new hirings and internal promotions. Per the report, the department experienced staffing changes with the hiring of nine new individuals to various positions, three internal promotions and three retirements.
Grewe also indicated in the report that BPD joined another multi-jurisdictional task force by adding a member of BPD to the Oakland County SWAT team. “Working with numerous neighboring law enforcement agencies furthers our commitment to fight crime and address specialized and complex crime,” he wrote.
BPD now participates in nine cooperative agreements and multi-jurisdictional task forces: CONSOLIDATED Public Safety Answering Point, Major Case Assistance Team, Narcotics Enforcement Team, Special Investigations Unit, Oakland County Tactical Unit, FBI Financial Crimes Task Force, South Oakland County Crash Investigation Team, Co-Response Program for People in Crisis, and Special Weapons and Tactics.
