Hanover Police Chief Chris Knoll says drug and substance misuse, mental health, intimate partner violence and property crime continue to be the main drivers of police business.
Knoll says in a report to Hanover Council, there were 5,666 calls for service in 2024, a 2.3 per cent increase over 2023.
His report says, “To meet this workload demand, we increased our uniformed staff to 16, the first such increase since 2021 when we had 4,618 calls for service.”
Knoll adds, “This means that we have handled a 23 per cent increase in calls for service since 2021 with a little more than a 6 per cent increase in officers.”
Knoll says the police service does its work through enforcement, education, and partnerships with community stakeholders. He explains, “Because the factors that lead people to commit crimes are often complex and require a multifaceted approach.”
Of note, Knoll says Hanover Police dealt with some significant incidents in 2024, including the arrest of a third person wanted in connection with an October 2023 home invasion robbery and the first homicide in the town in 10 years.
He says, “Our officers continue to be involved in lengthy investigations that take a significant number of hours such as the homicide, the home invasion, drug investigations and a stabbing.”
Knoll says they made a significant impact in reducing the supply of illicit drugs by seizing “$290,000 worth of drugs including 669 grams of cocaine, 435 grams of fentanyl, 925 grams of methamphetamine and 67 grams of opiates (heroin and hydromorphone pills).”
Other notable points in Knoll’s report include the statistic that police increased their clearance rate for crimes of violence from 88.8 per cent in 2023 to 95.1 per cent in 2024.
They also increased the number of criminal charges by 36 per cent to 1,035 compared to 739 in 2023.
Knoll says police held 360 people in custody, an increase of 15 per cent compared to 2023.