The Austin Police Department’s 2015 annual report revealed an increase in burglaries and drug crimes in Austin, yet the crime rate has stayed relatively the same over the past few years.

“It’s been a touch higher than other communities surrounding us,” Police Chief Brian Krueger said about the burglaries and drug crimes.

He explained crime rate is measured per capita or per 1,000 people in a city.

The report showed adult arrest rates for 2015 increased to 1,227 from 2014’s number of 1,144, which is higher than surrounding communities like Albert Lea, Owatonna and Faribault, Krueger said. That trend has been somewhat historic, he added.

Krueger said some years one area of crime may go up while other years, different areas are affected. Part of that is how a crime gets reported and how the call is categorized from the initial call.

“Someone calls in, believes there’s been a break-in, a burglary occurred,” Krueger explained. “Once we investigated, we found out a window was broken out but no entry was actually gained. That still gets categorized as a burglary report, when in fact it ends up being a property damage report.”

“We did see an uptick in burglaries last year,” he added.

The report also showed a significant increase in meth, heroin and marijuana seizures in 2015. Krueger said the reason for the increase is the high demand.

“The demand is up, so sales are up,” Krueger said. “We just do our best to make a dent in the drug world.”

There were 82 active drug investigations, which resulted in 34 drug-related arrests, with some still pending into 2016, according to the report.

There were also 16 drug-related search warrants executed as a result of drug investigations or neighborhood complaints.

Krueger said it’s always possible to relate thefts, frauds, check frauds and burglaries to drug activity.

Burglaries have also increased from 159 in 2014. Last year, 2015, saw an increase of about 40 percent, or 60 more burglaries for a total of 220, though there’s not a good explanation for it, according to Police Captain Dave McKichan.

Usually the department looks at the economics of the Austin area to see if anything has changed but southeast Minnesota and Austin have had stability in unemployment numbers, so that’s not the driving force, he said.

McKichan said they do see cocaine occasionally, but “nowhere near the numbers of heroin and meth.”

“Heroin and meth are the bulk of what we see, the bulk of the cases we work, to not see a cocaine case or a very low one come out of — in this case the task force — is not really surprising, based on the type of cases and what we know we’re seeing out there right now,” McKichan said.

McKichan said the number of grams seized varies from case to case and occasionally they see arrests with a pound or more in a single case, such as a March 28 arrest of a woman who had nearly a pound of meth at the Roadway Inn.

“One, to two, to three significant seizures can really change the amount pretty considerably,” McKichan said. “Likely in ‘15, we had a significant seizure fall within that time period which altered the numbers quite a bit higher.”

McKichan explained finding a pound or more is a pretty significant enforcement event and they don’t come regularly.

“Having gotten that much, it tells you that that much was out there and would have gotten on the street,” he said. “I don’t know how much information it gives us on how much is really out there, [but] we know it’s out there through the raw number of arrests we’re seeing.”

He said they could have 100 small arrests in a year and have a small seizure number or there could be 10 arrests all with big seizures.

“Even though our arrests were significantly down, our seizure number might be up just because of what was tied to the arrest,” McKichan said. “Certainly, we continue to work a lot of cases associated with narcotics, so it is out there.”

McKichan said they continue to combat the problem, but said when law enforcement has a significant seizure, it is good to know the substances will no longer be available for people to do harm.

Krueger thanked his officers and the staff at the Law Enforcement Center.

“I believe they do a very good job for our community and citizens and their safety is definitely high priority,” Krueger said. “Our officers do the best job possible for the citizens here.”