The Aberdeen Police Department has released its 2018 annual report, which shows significant increases in the number of certain types of crimes committed throughout the city compared with the 2017 statistics.

Police Chief Steve Shumate highlighted some changes from the previous year in the report during Wednesday’s Aberdeen City Council meeting, including increases in the number of criminal division calls, burglaries and thefts, and decreases in a few categories.

Here are a few of those statistics compared with 2017’s. They represent the “total” number that combines the attempted and completed crimes:

Increases

• Burglaries – went up from 125 in 2017 to 160 in 2018.

• Thefts – increased from 550 in 2017 to 619 in 2018. Of those 619 thefts, 425 were shoplifting, which went up from 361 shoplifting cases in 2017.

• Calls to criminal division – increased from 27,570 in 2017 to 28,451 in 2018.

• Drug and narcotic offenses – increased from 246 in 2017 to 263 in 2018.

• Assault – increased from 286 in 2017 to 308 in 2018.

• Aggravated assault – increased from 46 in 2017 to 55 in 2018.

Decreases

• Robberies – went down from 22 in 2017 to 16 in 2018.

• Sex offenses – decreased from 63 in 2017 to 47 in 2018. Rape cases (grouped within sex offenses) increased from 15 in 2017 to 16 in 2018.

There were no murders recorded in either the 2017 or 2018 reports.

Shumate noted there was a reduction in residential thefts in 2018, but it didn’t outweigh a significant increase in business thefts.

Along with the statistics, Shumate noted that Aberdeen’s police department is the busiest in the county and far outpaces the number of calls received by the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office and the Hoquiam Police Department. To view the full report, which includes an overview of the department’s hirings and notable retirements over the past year, as well as further breakdown of crime numbers, Shumate said it would be available in the next couple weeks on the Aberdeen Police Department website.