Lodi Police present 2020 crime statistics

Lodi Police Department officers made 195 arrests in 2020, and while stay-athome orders were in effect for nine months of the year, officials said crime statistics were similar to those recorded in the prior year.

Sgt. Josh Redding presented 2020 crime statistics from the department’s Investigations Unit to the Lodi City Council during a Tuesday morning shirtsleeve session.

Of the 195 arrests made last year, 25 of those were gang members or gang associates, he said.

Officers also seized 27 firearms and 3.25 pounds of narcotics — including methamphetamines and heroin — and executed 150 search warrants.

In addition, 175 citations were issued and officers made contact with 951 people, Redding said.

“These numbers aren't too far off from 2019, considering we were curtailed roughly four months in the heart of COVID where we weren’t out there being as proactive as we typically are,” he said. “So these numbers, while they are down some, are really pretty significant given that downtime.”

Mayor Alan Nakanishi asked if Lodi was safer than it was five years ago,

and wanted to know if illegal guns were increasing in the city, given the number of social media posts the police make regarding the recovery of firearms.

Redding said while there has been an uptick in illegal guns being found during searches, the trend is not specific to Lodi, but rather the entire nation.

The uptick, Redding said, was in the amount of “ghost guns” being made by residents in their home from a kit. The weapons are not traceable, as they have no serial numbers, and they are becoming more prevalent in police searches across the country.

“What’s really affected us this year has been COVID, and not keeping people in jails,” Redding said. “Where in the past, we’d book people if they were on a felony (charge) into the county jail. Whereas now, unless it’s a very violent offense or something of that nature, we are citing people in the field with a court date to appear later.”

Two noteworthy cases Redding highlighted Tuesday morning involved two men arrested for illegal weapons.

On May 8, officers arrested Marcos Martinez on the 300 block of North Stockton Street, finding two handguns, ammunition and various indications he was a part of a gang.

Redding said the department had been dealing with Martinez for several years, and was suspected in an assault and stabbing a few weeks prior to his arrest.

On June 11, officers arrested Ricky Garcia on the 700 block of South Church Street, locating a stolen handgun, nunchuks and handgun magazines after a search.

Police had received information that Garcia was posting on social media that he was looking for Lodi patrol officers while they were on traffic stops. Garcia would then drive by traffic stops and film himself with a gun in his lap, Redding said.

Chief Sierra Brucia said gang incidents had declined significantly over the last decade thanks to Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention grants from the state obtained by former chief Mark Helms.

Thanks to the grants, gang incidents dropped from as many as 300 in 2010 to less than 50 a year.

Along with investigating crimes in the city, the Lodi Police Department has also investigated its own officers for complaints and misconduct.

According to Sgt. Tim Fritz, who heads up the department’s Office of Professional Standards, there were four internal affairs investigations opened last year with eight completed. Four of those were holdovers from 2019, he said.

The department typically reviews as many as 14 internal affairs cases a year, Fritz said.

In addition, the department received 50 policy violations leveled against nine officers, with 11 of those claims sustained, four exonerated and 24 unfounded. Another 11 were not sustained, he said.

When an incident is sustained, it means an allegation occurred in violation of policy or law, while not sustained means there were insufficient facts to make a determination. When an officer is exonerated, an allegation occurred but there was no violation of policy or law.

“(An allegation) can be something very small, or it can be something substantial,” Fritz said. “Some resulted in some sort of discipline. Others do not. Just because it’s sustained doesn’t mean there’s some sort of discipline.”

Brucia said violations alleged against an officer can range anywhere from an walking across the street not using a crosswalk, to using excessive force or violating a citizen’s civil rights.

If there is a sustained violation, he said, it could be handled with verbal counseling, written counseling, a letter of reprimand, time off without pay, a motion for suspension, or even termination.

“In none of those cases did any employees have to be terminated, but there were lower levels of discipline that were meted out by me as a result of a sustained finding,” Brucia said. “There is also almost always additional training if there’s a policy violation. We want to make sure that (officers) know the policy, they understand the policy and they know how to apply the policy.”

The department also reviews a variety of incidents its officers are involved in, including firearm discharges, vehicle pursuits and any use of force.

Fritz said there were only two firearm discharge reviews completed last year, including the November 2019 officer involved shooting in the city’s industrial area. The other incident was the firing of one round at an injured animal on Turner Road last year, he said.

Sixteen on-duty collisions were reviewed in 2020, as were 35 vehicle pursuits and 180 use of force incidents, Fritz said.

Councilman Doug Kuehne said he wanted to tip his hat to the department, especially since there were so few internal affairs investigations opened during a year of turmoil and hostility toward law enforcement in general.

“Last year was probably one of the most difficult years in a while, or at least in my history, or of all police departments across the country's history,” he said. “For all the allegations and defunding police and just the whole tone and tenor of our society, last year was just rough. It’s just phenomenal and great news to me. I’m very proud of the department and you, the chief, with how you handled all the protests, the help you gave to other municipalities.”

Brucia said the department’s long-standing to community policing was a factor in 2020 statistics.

“We’ve stressed doing the right thing and being in the right place for the right reasons, and I think that was showcases throughout the year with the large amount of demonstrations that we were part of. There was a lot of animosity toward law enforcement in general, and our office certainly rose to the occasion and handled themselves very professionally.”