Traffic stops to total incidents in Ripon were up 15 percent.
That’s according Police Chief Ed Ormonde during his 2016 Crime and Activity report.
In his recent update to the Ripon City Council, Ormonde noted that his department responded to a little bit over 24,000 incidents during the past year. Of that, 11,000 were calls for service and 12,000 were officer-initiated activities.
The latter included 3,500 traffic stops – an increase of 15 percent from the previous year – which, he said, also accounted for 32 percent of the citations issued.
“People were either happy or upset,” said Ormonde on those being stopped on the various hazardous moving violations.
Among those, he listed, were for speeding, unsafe driving, seat-belt infractions, and driving distracted.
“They were either texting or talking on their cell phone,” Ormonde said.
As for traffic accidents, he pointed out that police filed 106 such reports.
Larceny and theft, meanwhile, made up for most of the crime that took place in Ripon during the past year.
Ormonde indicated that many were for shoplifting along with thefts from items taken from a resident’s front yard or an open garage.
Political campaign signs were also included among the stolen property reports given that 2016 was an election year.
Police also operated shorthanded during a three-month stretch.
“That made it difficult for us to keep up with the activity levels,” Ormonde said.
His department was down five officers, who either resigned and transferred to other cities, took a medical leave or were just absent from work.
“We had 17 officers including 10 patrol officers,” Ormonde recalled.
Ripon once again had no homicides or arson incidents to report for the past year.
Assaults were also down – namely, the simple and aggravated variety – as well as burglaries and stolen vehicles, according to Ormonde.

To contact reporter Vince Rembulat, e-mail vrembulat@mantecabulletin.com.