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Eureka public safety reports: fire and police outline calls, staffing gains and program shifts
Summary
Humboldt Bay Fire JPA and the Eureka Police Department presented annual reports showing steady call volumes, improved staffing and increases in proactive policing; fire average response time met NFPA benchmarks and police data reflect reporting changes under NIBRS.
Humboldt Bay Fire (JPA) Chief Citro and Eureka Police Department Chief Stevens presented their 2025 annual reports to the Eureka City Council on March 17, with both departments reporting operational improvements and continuing service demands.
Chief Citro said Humboldt Bay Fire responded to 7,305 calls for service in 2025, with about 3.2% classified as fires and roughly 62.6% as rescue and EMS calls. He reported an average emergency response time of 5 minutes 46 seconds for code‑3 responses, within the National Fire Protection Association standard of under six minutes. Chief Citro also provided a detailed breakdown of incident categories (structure, vehicle, vegetation, trash and outside fires), motor vehicle incidents and technical rescues, and noted station‑level call distributions and recent station upgrades. He told council staffing shortages had eased in 2025, with fewer voluntary resignations compared with previous years, several promotions and four new firefighter hires; training hours totaled 9,255 for the year.
Chief Stevens reviewed the police department’s annual report, recognizing several officers and presenting department statistics. He said EPD handled roughly 77,460 incidents in 2025, increased proactive policing and traffic enforcement, and an increase in arrest totals tied to targeted strategies. Stevens explained the shift to the federal NIBRS reporting system and how it can change year‑to‑year comparisons; he said crimes against persons and property decreased while arrests for crimes against society (public intoxication, drug violations, etc.) increased as enforcement intensified. Stevens also discussed the city’s mobile surveillance trailers, noting they are deployed to address problem locations but are not continuously monitored and that the department has not yet implemented systematic tracking of trailer deployments.
Council members praised both departments’ community engagement work (station tours, outreach programs, community support efforts) and asked for follow‑up information on station-level trends and deployment tracking for surveillance trailers. No formal council actions were taken on either report; both were received.
