One of the added benefits to having an Annual Police Report is to show the community where their police department is excelling. In 2018, the Parsons Police Department was able to show a large decrease in crash data from the previous years. Some of this is due to maintaining a consistent enforcement level and having officers visible to the public on patrol.  

The number of crashes dropped from 234 in 2017 to 150 in 2018. In this report we are also to show the community what months throughout the year have had the largest amount of traffic crashes. In 2018, April had the highest amount of traffic crashes, clocking in at 17 accidents for the month. Traffic crashes are also reduced due to traffic law enforcement. Parsons Police officers wrote 1,861 traffic citations in 2018. That may seem like a large number but that averages to 1 citation every 4.68 hours or 5 citations in a day. In fact, the Parsons Police Department made a total of 2,930 traffic stops in 2018 and only wrote 1,213 of those violators. That was 41.39% of the drivers received a citation. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) the national average if 49%. This means our officers are using the lowest level of enforcement to gain the highest level of voluntary cooperation, taking into account the totality of circumstances and seriousness of each violation

Parsons Police Chief Robert Spinks "Officer presence is a large part of our daily duties. If citizens see officers, they inadvertently slow down and drive safer, which is what we are truly out here for."

For more statistics on traffic crashes and citation please see our Annual Report at www.parsonspd.com

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