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Dixon Police report 2024: department cites 92% favorability, small year-over-year crime drop
Summary
Police Chief Robert Thompson presented the department's 2024 annual report, highlighting a 92% favorability rating from service-call respondents and a 5% overall decline in crime; staff described changes from NIBRS recoding and noted targeted increases in aggravated assaults and burglaries tied to business break-ins.
The Dixon Police Department told the City Council on April 1 that residents who rate police interactions report high satisfaction, and that overall crime fell slightly in 2024. Police Chief Robert Thompson and analyst Christina Garcia presented the department's annual report and related transparency materials.
Chief Thompson described the department's community feedback system (QHiT) and said citywide favorability among people who used police services was 92%: "92% of all the interactions we've had with people, have been rated as positive interactions." Analyst Christina Garcia said the city's criminal-statistics reporting uses NIBRS (national incident-based reporting) and that overall crime decreased by 5% compared with last year, a change equal to about 43 fewer reports. She cautioned that some upward trends (aggravated assault, burglary, kidnapping/abduction) reflected recategorization under NIBRS rather than a straightforward increase in criminality: "Domestic violence and false imprisonment were previously categorized as simple assault... simple assault went down, but aggravated assault went up."
The presentation included operational metrics: 2024 saw roughly 1,700 case numbers/incident reports, an average emergency-response time of about 4 minutes and 12 seconds (a reduction of roughly 1 minute 21 seconds from the prior year), nearly 15,000 officer‑initiated calls-for-service, and an arrest decline of about 26% compared with the previous year. Staff also showed monthly averages for traffic stops (about 155 per month) and described the department's use of perceived-race data for traffic-stop reporting as required by state law.
Council members asked about traffic enforcement capacity and how a dedicated traffic officer would affect citations and collisions; Chief Thompson said directed enforcement follows data-driven speed surveys and collaboration with engineering. Thompson and Garcia also noted the department has been using warnings and targeted education in recent weeks around helmet use and unsafe e-bike/scooter operation.
The presentation materials are available on the city's transparency portal, and staff invited further follow-up questions from council and residents.
