Despite high-profile cases, criminal incidents are down in Oxford
From a bomb squad operation to a barricade situation, first responders had a busy April in Oxford. Despite high-profile cases, though, non-traffic incidents are at a five-year low.
Within 15 days in April, the Oxford Police Department responded to calls for arson and shots fired, arrested a man wanted for murder in Indiana, handled a barricade situation with a SWAT team response and assisted the Cincinnati FBI in a bomb squad operation, all while managing more routine calls for theft, property damage and assault.
That’s a lot of crime for a small city. Despite the volume of high-profile cases in April, though, incidents so far in 2025 are at a five-year low.
According to crime tracking statistics from OPD, the department responded to just 122 non-traffic incidents in the first 16 full weeks of 2025, a post-pandemic low. Most individually tracked types of incidents from theft to sexual assault are also at or near their low points since 2021. Only motor vehicle theft is at a five-year high for similar time periods.
The department has reported less incidents but more arrests and citations than over the same 16-week period in 2024.
Police Chief John Jones said the high volume of high-intensity cases in April was taxing on his team. April is typically a busy month for the department as the weather improves and people get outside more. Having a SWAT team situation and a bomb squad operation in the same month impacted OPD’s ability to do other day-to-day tasks.
Even though the number of incidents are down, Jones said it doesn’t feel that way internally.
“It feels like we’re busier,” Jones said. “Maybe that’s with some of those more high-profile things that have happened. It makes you feel busier than previous years, but clearly the data shows differently when it comes to things such as sexual assault and theft.”
A number of internal and external factors can impact the incidents and citations any police department responds to, Jones said, so it’s difficult to point to a single reason why arrests and citations increased while incidents decreased. However, this spring has been a transition period for OPD as it promoted a new lieutenant and a new sergeant and is now going through an officer hiring process.
“Part of the reason that I say we feel busier but yet it’s really not is also the manpower issues that we experience with recruiting and retention always being a challenge,” Jones said. “We in the last few years have constantly had people in training.”
Among the types of incidents OPD tracks, only motor vehicle thefts hit a five-year high in the first 16 full weeks of the year. Lieutenant Adam Price previously told the Oxford Free Press that some of the vehicles targeted have been Kia and Hyundai models, which have been targeted since 2020 due to their lack of engine immobilizers. Even when car owners have upgraded to protect their vehicles, attempted thefts can still cost thousands of dollars in damage. Jones said the department believes a certain group of juveniles has been responsible for multiple attempted vehicle thefts.
Year over year since 2018, violent crime overall in Oxford peaked in 2020 and has decreased since then, according to FBI statistics. The FBI includes homicide, aggravated assault, rape and burglary in its violent crime statistics. Simple assault, meanwhile, increased each year from 2019 to 2023 in Oxford. Reported simple assault incidents decreased last year for the first time post-pandemic but remained well above 2019 levels.
Destruction, damage and vandalism of property, one of the most common crimes in Oxford aside from theft, also dipped in 2024. Incidents of that crime have remained well below the 2018 high of 151 incidents since then.
Jones said assault and other physical crimes are a priority for the department to decrease. A lot of crime in Oxford, particularly from Miami University students, is ultimately driven by alcohol, Jones said. He’s noticed a shifting culture around alcohol since the start of the pandemic, particularly with less incidents during events like Green Beer Day.
“Alcohol drives a lot of our assaults here in the Uptown area after the bars close,” Jones said. “If we can affect that and bring those numbers down, that’s better for our community, for our safety, preventing injuries.”
Some alcohol-related offenses are starting to tick back up, Jones said. He plans to make alcohol enforcement a priority at the start of the next school year in an effort to keep other types of offenses low.
