Technology and community. Dubuque Police Chief Jeremy Jensen emphasized those two factors as he presented the Dubuque City Council with the department’s annual report for 2023 this week. In 2023, Dubuque Police reached a resolution to 77% of all crimes against persons, while the national average for 2022 (the most current on record via FBI data) was 37%. The department resolved 92% of crimes against property, a much higher rate than the national average of 12%. Jensen also highlighted the impact brain health is having on policing. The department’s critical incident team uses a secondary responder model, providing a second trained individual to aid first responders when a person is experiencing brain health or substance abuse issues. From 2016 through 2020, brain health calls averaged 451 per year. They have steadily increased since then, reaching a high in 2023 of 766.
The Dubuque Drug Task Force handled 323 investigations in 2023. Of those, 29 were drug overdose investigations and seven were opioid death investigations. Fentanyl was present in all seven opioid deaths. Jensen noted that over the past 20 years, methamphetamine had been the top focus for law enforcement, but there were no methamphetamine-related investigations in 2023.
