HOLMES BEACH – There’s good news for residents and visitors to Anna Maria Island’s largest city. Police Chief Bill Tokajer says serious crime has been dramatically reduced over the past decade.
In an email to commissioners and the mayor, Tokajer said that serious crime has been reduced 77.9% since its peak in 2012. Serious crimes include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.
In 2012, the HBPD reported 154 serious crimes, also known as uniform crime reporting. In 2023, that number had dropped to 34. Last year, officers reported six instances of aggravated assault, eight burglaries, 18 larcenies and two vehicle thefts. Since the peak in 2012, instances of those crimes have steadily been on the decline.
Arrests in the city also went down in 2023 to 169 adults and 12 juveniles. Since 2016, arrests have also been on the downswing with a peak of 385 adult and 30 juvenile arrests recorded that year.
In 2023, officers responded to 13,185 calls for service, up from 12,082 the previous year. Officers responded to 96 noise complaints, 84 of which were deemed to be unfounded, completed 141 weekly house checks, wrote 4,051 parking tickets, issued 984 traffic citations and 718 written warnings, worked 90 traffic accidents and completed 145 traffic stops with the help of the city’s license plate reader cameras. HBPD officers also assisted other agencies with issues 785 times in 2023.
