Hopkins saw yet another drop in crime in 2012, according to statistics Police Chief Mike Reynolds presented to the City Council on Tuesday.

While violent crime increased by 7.3 percent in 2012—a figure that reflects just three more cases than a year earlier—overall crime rates fell 4 percent from 2011 figures and 7.2 percent from 2010.

Hopkins police saw particular success with thefts, by far the most common crime. The community had 29 fewer cases than it did in 2011—an 8 percent one-year decline and 12.8 percent two-year decline. Similarly, burglaries dropped 13.9 percent and 14.7 percent over 2011 and 2012, respectively.

Reynolds told Patch that’s partly because the community hasn’t had as many mass break-ins as it did in earlier years. In 2011, for example, thieves broke into 48 vehicles total during two mass burglaries in a downtown Hopkins garage and an underground garage at Blake Road and Hiawatha.

“We haven’t had the big strings (of break-ins) this year,” Reynolds said.

The police have also been proactive about stopping crimes like those sooner, he said. After thieves entered several homes and garages in the Interlachen and South Presidential neighborhoods this summer, the newly launched FOCUS (“Focusing on Crime Using Strategy”) Team was directed to the area. Officers worked undercover and monitored the neighborhood, potentially reducing the number of thefts.

Hopkins and Edina officers eventually identified a suspect, who confessed after Minneapolis police arrested him in August.

Even some of the increases are more a reflection of extra attention than worsening crime. Drunken driving incidents, for example, shot up 41.9 percent, an increase of 36. Reynolds said that’s partly because the department received a $15,191 Toward Zero Deaths grant that funded overtime for extra drunken driving enforcement. In the NightCAP portion of that grant alone, officers stopped 55 vehicles, arrested nine impaired drivers and issued 93 traffic citations.

“It’s much, much, much more intensive,” he said.

The increase can also be attributed to Reynolds’ and other police leaders’ general direction focus on drunken driving, he said. Officers made 7,602 traffic stops, a 45 percent increase over 2011.

“I’m very proud of these numbers,” Reynolds told the council. “Our officers are very active out there when they’re not on a call for service.”

Those calls for service continue to increase rapidly—but as with drunken driving, it’s not necessarily bad news. Reynolds said the increased number of cell phones and outreach efforts that urge people to call police whenever they see something suspicious has encouraged more people to get in touch with police.

“That’s our message we get out there time and time again,” he said.

Similar reasons are behind a 114 percent jump in disturbance calls.

Hopkins Crime

*The homicide total shown does not include the February 2012 overdose of a Hopkins man in which the alleged drug dealer was charged with third-degree murder Thursday.