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Police and fire chiefs give 2025 recaps; police note drop in overdoses but increase in traffic enforcement
Summary
Ocala police and fire chiefs presented year‑end reports: police reported mixed trends (overall incident counts up, arrests down, traffic enforcement up, overdose responses down but with 23 fatalities) and the fire department reported roughly 25,000 calls in 2025 and recent apparatus additions.
Ocala — Police Chief Mike Bawkins and Fire Chief Cliff Welborn presented year‑end public safety reports at the Jan. 6 council meeting.
Chief Bawkins said total incidents handled in 2025 rose about 15% (from 168,000 to roughly 192,000) while dispatch calls for service edged down about 1%, a dynamic he said allowed officers to expand proactive enforcement. He said officers investigated over 7,000 crimes (a 6% decrease), arrests fell to 5,558 and traffic stops increased to more than 28,000 for the year (about a 21% increase). He reported overdose responses were down about 20–22% from the prior year but that 23 overdoses were fatal; he also noted a Christmas‑day murder that has led to an arrest.
Fire Chief Cliff Welborn reported the department handled roughly 25,141 calls in 2025 and described apparatus additions that restored full engine and rescue complements across stations. He said preliminary call counts for January show continued high activity and confirmed that bringing Station 8 online should reduce response volumes for some units.
Both chiefs said fuller written reports would follow; Chief Bawkins said a detailed year‑end report would be circulated in February.
