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NEDERLAND — Crime statistics in the city of Nederland remain mostly static when comparing 2019 and 2020.

Nederland Police Chief Gary Porter noted calls for service in 2020 were down due to COVID-19 and there not being as many people out and about.

“All in all the crime rates stayed pretty static over the past years, though there is a considerable amount more traffic moving through Nederland,” Porter said. “We continue our best efforts to reduce the crimes we can.”

According to the 2020 Annual Crime Report, there was one murder in 2020 and one in 2019.

The crime of sexual assault is broken down into categories by the National Incident-Based Reporting System used by NPD. There were six cases reported in 2019 and five cases reported in 2020. Sexual assault on a child had three cases in 2019 and one case in 2020.

Robbery and aggravated robbery are reported separately as well, with two reported cases in 2019 and four in 2020.

Thefts dropped slightly, going from 174 in 2019 to 161 in 2020, as did burglaries, which went from 164 in 2019 to 119 in 2020.

Criminal mischief was up by 10 cases, going from 79 in 2019 to 89 in 2020.

Assaults dropped as well going from 218 in 2019 to 204 in 2020.

Nederland City Manager Chris Duque said the Nederland Police Department does a great job for the community, adding police officers have a difficult job in that some crimes cannot be predicted and some offenses can’t be patrolled for.

Training, Duque said, has become a priority for the police department.

Porter listed in his 2020 Annual Report, NPD employees and the various training they had completed in 2020, some of which included eyewitness evidence/identification, understanding excited delirium calls, use of force and School Based Law Enforcement active shooter training mandate.

NPD has hired a number of new officers and is taking part in a cadet training program as well as a partnership where there are school resource officers.

“They are proactive at the schools and nurture the relationship with youth in the community as well as parents and teachers,” Duque said, adding he believes the community is proud of that partnership and relationship. “They are doing an amazing job at the police department in all of their efforts they do to keep the community safe.”

Calls

In 2020, NPD received 17,342 calls for service including traffic calls and stops, an average of 48 calls for service per day.

Mid County Central Dispatch, which handles calls for the three Mid County cities, received 43,948 calls for service in 2020, the document stated.