BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD) — Bloomington Police Chief Jamal Simington said shootings are down in the city, but overall crime within the city is up.
He shared this information with the City Council on Monday night while giving his annual 2025 police report. Simington reports shootings are down 46%, burglary down 30% and auto-theft crimes down 26%.
However, overall crime increased by 5.6%.
That’s due to animal cruelty crimes going up 233% and drug/narcotic offences going up 303%. Sex crimes against people also saw a slight increase.
Simington said this is because their department has been training to crack down on drug crimes.
“I’m very proud of the patrol officers and the street crimes unit that are out there progressively working those cases,” he said. “We do have an anonymous tip [line]… and we follow up on those measures.”
They’ve also improved their cybercrime department so they can catch more child pornography users.
Calls of service received high marks in the chief’s report. They sent out almost 67,000 calls, with 0.04% of those calls resulting in a complaint against an employee, while 0.35% of those calls resulted in an officer using force.
They also touted their School Resource Officers, who received national recognition from the National Association of School Resource Officers Model Agency Award for excellence in school-based policing.
Ward 9 Councilwoman Abby Scott said she appreciates everything the police department does.
“I learned about our SRO’S and their training in restorative justice, not there, you know, to put kids in handcuffs, but to create bonds for the community, for safety,” she said. “This department has a reputation that I’ve heard for media of being transparent. And I just want to say more of that, please.”
This story originated at WMBD TV. The original story can be found at CIProud.com.
