Parkersburg Police Lt. P.M. Edelen, seated, and Sgt. T.R. Worstell look over a report Friday at the Police Department. Parkersburg Police responded to 38,006 calls in 2022, generating 7,674 incident reports. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — The Parkersburg Police Department saw fewer drug overdoses and deaths and breaking and entering, trespassing and destruction of property reports in 2022 than 2021, though reports of crimes against officers increased slightly.

Officers responded to 180 overdoses, 12 of them fatal, last year, Police Chief Matthew Board said, compared to 210 overdoses with 23 deaths in 2021. He attributed the improvement to “our enforcement efforts but not just that alone.”

One factor is the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (L.E.A.D.) program, said Board, who was named chief in April. If drug abuse or addiction is an underlying factor in a crime, officers or civilian liaisons share that with court officials so that treatment is factored in to a plea agreement or sentence.

“In L.E.A.D., you try to hold people accountable criminally, while also giving them the help they need to not reoffend to support a habit,” Board said.

The department also has three officers working with Westbrook Health Services’ Quick Response Team to reach out to individuals who have overdosed and connect them with resources for assistance.

The number of drug violation reports to which officers responded increased from 486 to 531 from 2021 to 2022, and Board noted there were 514 drug arrests.

“So essentially every time we encountered drugs, an arrest was made,” he said, noting the department’s goals are to stop sales but also get people help that need it. “Our overdoses and our deaths are down. So that to me shows our efforts are working. But … there’s still work to be done.”

Shoplifting reports remained virtually unchanged, 448 to 449, for the last two years. But breaking and enterings, destruction of property and petit larcenies — some of which are linked to drug problems — all declined. So did trespassing encounters, 223 to 133, something the chief said goes beyond the efforts of just police.

“A lot of those trespassings stemmed from people inhabiting vacant dwellings,” he said.

In the last five years, the City of Parkersburg has torn down 175 vacant, dilapidated properties, spending more than $2 million in the process, including not only demolition but purchase of properties, legal notice and process service, according to statistics provided by Mayor Tom Joyce.

“It’s all part of the puzzle,” Joyce said, pointing to the hiring of civilian homeless outreach coordinators and a Magistrate Court liaison as other components.

There were more vacant property fires, 34, in 2020 in the city than in 2021 (15) and 2022 (16) combined, Parkersburg Fire Chief Jason Matthews said. The demolition efforts have “absolutely” contributed to that.

“We are working through BEA (the Building Enforcement Agency) and working with code and engineering, trying to work to get known problem houses down faster,” Matthews said, adding the Development Department is also part of the process.

The Police Department’s arson reports dropped from 31 in 2021 to 23 in 2022.

Domestic batteries increased from 107 to 166, which Board said may be related to more things opening back up, such as bars, in the wake of the COVID-induced shutdowns of 2020. He noted driving under the influence arrests totaled 44 in 2020, but were up to 55 and 52 in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

“That 2020’s kind of the outlier because of COVID,” Board said.

There were also more reports of assault, threatening violence, and battery, physical contact with the intent to injure, against officers in 2022. There were 26 assault reports and 22 battery reports, up from 19 and 17 the previous year.

“I don’t think there’s an overall component that’s driving (it),” Board said. While there has been tension around the country in the wake of the 2020 death of George Floyd in the custody Minneapolis Police, “in Parkersburg, I still maintain we have one of the better communities as far as police support and police interaction.”

Homicides also rose, from two to five.

Reports of vehicles entered dropped from 19 to seven, which Board attributes to treatment efforts and more aggressive patrols.

Overall, the department responded to 38,006 calls, up from 36,916 in 2021 and 33,657 in 2020. The three years prior, there were more than 40,000 calls each.

“It’s the world coming back to normal,” Board said of the increase.

The department has also been focusing on crimes against children via the internet, with nine arrests pertaining to child pornography in 2022 and part of 2021 and five arrests involving individuals who traveled to the city after chatting online with police investigators they thought were juveniles, he said.

Twelve related search warrants were executed on homes, with 5 terrabytes of data examined by investigators, Board said.

There were 7,674 incident reports completed in 2022, which can include anything from minor documentation up to a homicide. There were 9,054 in 2021. Total arrests were down slightly, from 2,387 to 2,320.

But the department doesn’t just keep track of crime statistics.

Board noted officers logged 3,957 1/2 hours of “community involved time,” anything where an officer has an opportunity to interact with people in a non-enforcement capacity. This can include the bike patrol; providing security at school events, parades or races; or working on litter control with work release inmates or clients of local treatment centers.

The chief pointed to Officer Jeremy Pinkerton, the prevention resource officer at Hamilton Middle School, being stationed at City Park throughout the summer as another example.

“It’s a bond that you want to build,” Board said. “Those friendly encounters are just as important as the enforcement encounters.”

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.