GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — Green Bay Police have been hard at work this year tackling issues like violent crime and traffic problems but one particular type of crime shot up this year.
“Our problem that kept rising was motor vehicle theft,” said Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith. “Right now we’re at a 19 percent increase, and most of those cars are stolen because people left their keys in them.”
121 cars have been stolen in Green Bay this year. Smith says cold temperatures at the beginning of the year drove those thefts as residents left their keys in the car to warm it up before driving out for the day.
Another area that saw a slight jump–4%–was aggravated assault, but otherwise, Smith says the trends look good.
“We’re all pretty happy about where our crime is going and where it’s trending,” Smith told WTAQ.
Looking ahead to next year, Smith says the department is focusing on traffic.
“We have doubled the number of traffic officer we have. We have four full time officers dedicated completely to traffic,” Smith said. “They’ll be out there every day.”
Smith says those officers will be enforcing speed limits and looking for drunk and distracted drivers.
