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Chester police report: 37,578 incidents in 2024; homicide clearance rate 70%
Summary
Police Commissioner Katrina Blackwell presented 2024 departmental statistics to council Feb. 26: 37,578 reported incidents, 20 homicides (70% clearance), 35 nonfatal shootings (26% clearance), and 924 arrests. The department discussed staffing, training, recent grants and recruitment deadlines.
Police Commissioner Katrina Blackwell presented the Chester Police Department’s 2024 statistical report to council on Feb. 26, saying the department handled 37,578 reported incidents in 2024, up from 35,903 in 2023.
Blackwell provided a month-by-month incident breakdown and Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Part I comparisons for 2024: two arson incidents (two arrests), 176 assaults (86 arrests), 114 burglaries (15 arrests), 20 homicides (14 solved by the detective division, a 70% clearance rate), 66 robberies (five arrests), 422 thefts of nonmotor vehicles (27 arrests), and 40 thefts of motor vehicles (10 arrests). The presentation said 15 of the 20 homicides involved firearms and that firearm-related homicides increased compared with 2023 but remain below the 2020 peak noted in the report.
Blackwell said there were 35 nonfatal shootings in 2024 classified as aggravated assaults; nine of those were solved, a 26% clearance rate. She also reported a department-wide total of 924 arrests and detailed narcotics seizures and related arrests for 2024.
The commissioner reviewed training and equipment updates, including grants that funded drones, a drug-identification machine, crime-scene cameras, body-worn cameras, arson-investigation equipment and ongoing body armor replacement through the Patrick Leahy Bulletproof Vest Partnership program. Blackwell also said the department is partnering with ScribeWatch to improve public information and that a detective hiring test and a future sergeant test are planned.
On recruitment, the presentation stated the department is accepting applications for patrolman until Feb. 28; applicants need not be certified and the department will sponsor qualified candidates for the Delaware County Community College Municipal Police Academy. Blackwell and council members discussed related logistics and test dates; a staff member later referenced a March test date during the Q&A.
Councilors thanked Blackwell and county prosecutors were singled out for partnership on violent-crime reductions. The commissioner said she will provide the report to the mayor and council and that the department planned to post the statistics on the city website.
