SPD: Crime trending down in Queen City

Overall crime in the city was down by 4.7% in 2025 compared with the prior year, according to data released by the Springfield Police Department.

Crimes against property, including burglary, shoplifting and credit card fraud, decreased by 8.3%; crimes against society, including drug violations and prostitution, declined by 4.7%; and crimes against persons, such as rape and murder, increased by 1.6%.

“Through tracking and releasing crime data, we can give citizens a realistic look at crime in our community,” Police Chief Paul Williams said in a March 9 news release. “The information helps us identify successful policing strategies, as well as highlighting areas where we can make improvements through communitywide participation in crime prevention.”

Crimes against property totaled 9,864 offenses reported in 2025, compared with 10,759 in 2024.

The annual report shows top crimes against property including shoplifting, at 1,259 offenses; theft from motor vehicles, at 1,252; and false pretenses/swindle/confidence game, at 1,248.

Three-year plan
The department also released its goals and objectives for 2026-28.

The document outlines service goals, including the following:

• Quality service focused on enforcing the law and preventing crime to improve quality of life

• Integrity, including honesty and living by the rules

• Fairness, defined as equal treatment without prejudice or bias

• Communication, including active listening to all, informing crime victims and educating the public

• Helpful attitude, exemplified by treating people’s problems as important and demonstrating empathy, humility and courtesy

The three-year plan looks to continue the trajectory of reducing crime.

To further tackle violent crime, one stated objective is to apply stricter enforcement to both major and minor criminal violations, traffic violations, noise violations and nuisance law violations by using measurable outcomes and specific benchmarks, according to the plan.

Among other strategies, officers will increase proactive enforcement, meaning enforcement efforts with a preventative focus, compared to previous years and to couple the approach with data-based information, the plan states, calling for yearly improvement and a three-year goal of a 15% increase in proactive enforcement.

The plan states that once the department staffing reaches its authorized strength, two investigators will be added to the violent crimes unit and one to the homicide unit to yield more investigative time, specifically for gun-related crimes.

Overall crime reduction is another goal, and community engagement and participation will be sought to achieve it, the plan states.

The plan also calls for a continued reduction in public safety response times. In a March 2 City Council workshop, Williams reported, the current baseline response times for three levels of calls:

• Priority 1 calls, when a crime is in progress: goal, 6 minutes; 2025 average, 6 minutes, 27 seconds

• Priority 2 calls, when a crime has occurred but the suspect is gone: goal, 10 minutes; 2025 average, 9 minutes, 11 seconds

• Priority 3 calls, serious crimes that need to be reported: goal, 15 minutes; 2025 average, 14 minutes, 55 seconds

Working with community partners to address root causes of mental health issues remains an objective, with the goal of around-the-clock coverage of the co-responder program, a partnership with behavioral health provider Centerstone.

Council objectives
At the March 2 workshop, Williams also outlined plans for addressing Springfield City Council’s public safety priority by addressing an enduring theme for his department: staffing.

Currently, he reported, there are 316 sworn officers in the department, though 360 are authorized. The target number is based on having 2.2 officers per 1,000 in population, which would be 375 officers, he said.

There are 87 nonsworn staff versus a target of 94, and the goal is a 4:1 ratio of sworn to nonsworn staff.

Williams reported that 36 SPD retirees had returned to the department through the reinstatement program established in 2022. That includes 29 reinstated officers, four rehired and three lateral hires.

The sworn officer vacancy rate was 16% in 2025, the highest since 2021, though the non-sworn vacancy rate, at 10%, was the lowest in a five-year period.

The 81st police academy had 509 applications, outpacing the four previous years. Conditional offers were extended to 27, and three failed testing after the offer, leaving 24 hires, according to Williams’ report.

Data shows that in the 77th academy, 251 applications were received – fewer than half of those for the 81st – but a comparable 21 hires resulted.

Williams said he intends to hold high standards for hires.

“We doubled the number of applications and only hired three more qualified, competent people that we want to put out on the street,” he said. “It’s a difficult job; it’s a difficult testing process.”

He said some have suggested cutting out the written or physical test or skip the polygraph or psychological test, but he’s not going to do that.

“I could hire 100 people tomorrow. I’m not going to do that. We’re going to maintain our standards,” he said.

He said the department has gained 20 positions in the last two years, but it’s a slow process that took two to three years to get into and will take as long to get out of.

“My goal is by the end of 2026, into 2027, we’ll be back up to our regular staffing level,” he said.

He added that pay increases afforded by the quarter-cent public safety portion of the three-quarter-cent Spring Forward SGF sales tax has helped.

“It’s not that it’s not an issue anymore, but it’s not the No. 1 issue,” he said.

He said as long as SPD stays in the upper third of salaries among 15 comparable cities, it will be competitive.