Arrests made by Riverhead Police since the coronavirus pandemic struck the local area remained way down as the summer season drew to a close.
While arrests were down, reports of criminal incidents actually rose year-over-year for the month of August, according to data provided by the town police department last month.
There were 188 criminal incident reports in August 2020, compared to 177 in August 2019. Among the incidents police reported in August: one assault, five burglaries, 27 grand larcenies, 62 petit larcenies, four identity thefts, six incidents of fraud and 37 incidents of harassment.
Riverhead Police made 27 arrests in August, compared to 83 arrests in the same month last year, a 67.5% drop.
August arrests reported by police:
Assault: 1
Criminal Possession of Controlled Substance: 3
Criminal Contempt: 2
Driving While Intoxicated: 13
Grand Larceny: 1
Harassment: 2
Town Code Violation: 2
Trespass: 2
Warrant: 1
Police detained 11 prisoners during the month of August, compared to 56 prisoners in August 2019. While the decline in arrests is a factor in the drop in prisoners, another factor is a new state law that went into effect Jan. 1 that banned cash bail many criminal offenses, requiring police to release on an appearance ticket people arrested on charges specified in the law.
There were 81 domestic incident reported in the month of August.
Police reported 2,314 noncriminal incidents for the month. Among them were 351 aided cases, which are generally ambulance calls. There were four calls for nonfatal overdoses in August.
The number of summonses also fell year over year, from 1,087 in August 2019 to 711 in August this year. Of the summonses issued in August, 444 were parking tickets.
There were 155 motor vehicle accidents in the Town of Riverhead during August, none of them fatal, according to police data.
Revenues collected by the department are down about 14% so far this year compared to 2019. Police department revenues include alarm fees, impound and storage fees and fees for copies of reports.
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