SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — On March 1, 2023, KELOLAND News mapped one week of crimes called into the Sioux Falls Police Department (SFPD).
Now, we have gathered just over a year’s worth of SFPD call log data, and have sorted it to find out which calls are most common. You can see a depiction of the data here:
A few things stand out in the data, which will be noted below. Scroll further for a more detailed graph breaking down the calls.
The single largest category of calls over the past year were for ‘disorderly subjects’, comprising 13,316 calls. These are also separate from other disorderly-type calls, such as those for disorderly conduct and disorderly calls.
The next largest category was for ‘accidents,’ with 7,887 calls. This category is distinct from similar categories such as ‘accident-traffic’ and ‘accident-other.’
One noteworthy thing when looking at the highest volume categories are the 5,849 calls labeled ‘PD/supervisor landline.’ According to SFPD Officer Sam Clemens, this category of call indicates a person calling the police and asking to speak with an officer or supervisor, rather than reporting a problem or emergency to dispatch.
The other large volume categories are ‘wellbeing checks’ with 6,477 calls, ‘larceny’ with 5343 and ‘family offenses/disputes’ with 5,051.
Some other categories that stood out as ones of interest were abandoned vehicles, which with 2,967 calls surpassed those for stolen vehicles, which had 1,732 calls.
Panhandling, a much discussed topic in recent years, received just 140 calls, right around the same as those for reports of open burning and open windows/doors.
There were a number of categories with just one report over the last year. Among these are a SWAT call, a curfew violation, and a cat bite.
