Police Chief Clayton Sumner says while overall crime is down in the city of Hopkinsville in the first six months of 2020, violent crime has increased compared to this same time period last year. Chief Sumner made the comment in a social media post where he addressed the shots fired type incidents that have been occurring throughout the city.
According to Sumner, overall crime is down about 13% from January 1 through June 2019. He added that COVID-19 may have actually helped in this area because crimes of opportunity were greatly decreased. The data Sumner shared shows in 2019 there were 797 overall crime reports and 690 in 2020. However, Chief Sumner adds the troubling side to this is that violent crime is at an increase from the previous year with data showing in 2019 there were 36 violent crime reports compared to 45 in 2020.
So far this year, Chief Sumner says there have been 36 incidents of shots fired in which some sort of evidence was found. He says 13 of the incidents had property damage; five were accidental discharges of someone messing with their firearm and shooting themselves; ten incidents of evidence found with no damage, no witnesses, and no victim, but shell casings were found in the area; six incidents of someone being shot; and two miscellaneous incidents where one person was hit with shrapnel and one subject who reported being shot at but refused to talk to police.
Out of all 36 incidents, Chief Sumner says they have made twelve arrests and out of the six people who were shot, police have made five arrests.
Chief Sumner says all of these types of incidents are completely unacceptable and it cannot be tolerated. He points out that police officers cannot do this alone and the community must work together for the safety of all of our loved ones. He says Wednesday night, officers were shot at by an unknown person while leaving a separate call for service. He adds as a community we must not allow this type of behavior and those responsible must be brought in front of a judge to answer to these types of events threatening the community. Chief Sumner in his post humbly asked that all citizens work in partnership with the police department so they can bring justice to all those who wish to simply promote fear in the communities of Hopkinsville. He adds if you see something, please call and report it to help police put an end to this in our communities.
To read Chief Sumner’s post on Facebook, click here.
