Police in Boise, area cities see drop in 911 calls, traffic citations during stay-home order
The coronavirus pandemic led to stay-at-home orders, shuttered businesses and employees being forced to work remotely.
That led to way less traffic than usual and to a drop in public activity.
And all of that added up to a lighter workload for Treasure Valley police forces, who reported their numbers to the Statesman.
Boise saw the largest drop in traffic violations, as well as an immediate decrease in 911 calls, following Gov. Brad Little’s stay-home order in mid-March. There was an 86% decrease in citations for traffic violations, with 2,089 in March and only 293 in April, according to the Boise Police Department. There was a 99% decrease in speeding citations — from 861 in March to a mere seven between April 1 and April 28.
In 2019, BPD recorded 2,285 traffic stops in the month of March and 2,498 in April.
None of the steep drop is surprising when you consider that the Ada County Highway District showed a more than 40% drop in traffic immediately after the governor’s order. Unfortunately, some of the speeders were going really fast.
“There was a large decrease in the number of vehicles traveling on the road,” BPD spokesperson Haley Williams said in a statement to the Statesman. “In general, our officers have the discretion to issue citations in lieu of arrest, or give a warning instead of a citation, when it’s appropriate to do so.”
The number of warnings issued to drivers increased slightly from March to April, she said.
Williams said overall calls for service dropped 12% from the week before the stay-home order to the week after, and noted that the decrease in 911 calls from March to April was also 12%. She said the department made changes because of uncertainty surrounding how the pandemic would affect the community, including reassigning the traffic enforcement team to support patrol functions and all calls for service.
At the beginning of May, with businesses reopening and people traveling to work again, the Boise traffic enforcement team was assigned back to regular shifts, Williams said.
In Nampa, the amount of traffic stops from March 25 to April 29 declined by 72% compared to the period of Feb. 18 to March 24, police said. There was a minuscule drop in 911 calls (.3%) from the 35 days before the stay-home order to the first 35 days after.
“We have seen overall, just in general, a reduction in crime — not just a reduction in traffic stops or 911, which is good,” said Nampa Police Capt. Curt Shankle.
Shankle said 911 calls between March 25 and April 29 were down 9% from the same time frame in 2019, and traffic stops were down 52%.
The Meridian Police Department saw a 41% drop in calls for service from March to April, officials there said, with the raw numbers going from 4,374 to 2,563. The 2019 figures were 4,270 calls in March and 4,471 in April. There was a big decrease in traffic citations and warnings from March to April, according to MPD, with more than 1,200 in March and only 193 in April.
The dispatch for the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office said it saw a 13% increase in 911 calls from February to March, but then an 11% drop from March to April.
Similarly, the Ada County Sheriff’s Office said it also saw an 11% decrease in call volume from March to April.
