Violent crime edged up for the year through November in Dalton compared to the same period in 2023, according to data recently presented to the city’s Public Safety Commission. Property crime fell.
The commission members oversee the city’s police and fire departments.
“Falling property crime is a national trend,” said Dalton Police Chief Cliff Cason. “There are a lot of theories as to why, but I’m not sure if anyone really knows the explanation. As for violent crimes, in many of the incidents that have pushed our numbers up, the offender and the victim knew each other, domestic violence situations and things like that. So, I don’t think we can assume that it will continue to climb in 2025.”
There were 62 violent crimes through November, up from 59 in the same period in 2023. Violent crime includes homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
There were 627 property crimes, down from 739 in the same period in 2023.
There were no homicides through November, compared to one in the same period in 2023; 16 rapes reported through November, up from 15 in the same period in 2023; nine robberies, down from 11 in 2023; 55 burglaries, unchanged from the same period in 2023; 34 motor vehicle thefts, down from 41; and 37 aggravated assaults, up from 32 in the same period in 2023.
Compared to the five-year average, violent crime was still down 26.9% through November and property crime was down 21.6%.
There were 125 vehicle crashes in November, down from 146 in the previous month.
In November, Dalton police officers responded to 30 crashes with injuries. Those crashes resulted in 20 people injured with one serious injury and no fatalities.
Failure to yield and following too closely played a role in 24 crashes each.
Thursdays had the most crashes with 22, followed by Mondays and Fridays with 21 each. Sundays had the fewest crashes with eight. The periods from 11 a.m. to 1:59 p.m. and from 2 to 3:59 p.m. had the most crashes with 26 in each time period.
Compared to the five-year average, crashes were up 7.2% through November.
Walnut Avenue had the most crashes with 16.
The Dalton Fire Department answered 305 calls in November, according to data presented to the commissioners. Of those, 179 were medical.
Eighteen calls were for motor vehicle wrecks with injuries, and 14 were for motor vehicle wrecks without injuries. One was for a gas leak. Twenty-five calls were canceled while firefighters were on their way.