Upper Merion police recorded 2,650 separate activity entries during August, according to records I obtained through a Right-to-Know request.
The monthly totals have remained relatively consistent:
Reporting period | Activity entries | Daily average |
|---|---|---|
June | 2,540 | 84.7 |
July | 2,610 | 87.0 |
August | 2,650 | 85.5 |
The July records ended July 30, so that month is missing one day. The daily averages provide a better comparison and show that overall police activity remained relatively steady throughout the summer.
The most common August activities
Ambulance requests were the most frequently recorded activity in August, followed by extra patrol requests and traffic stops.
Police activity | June | July | August |
|---|---|---|---|
Ambulance request | 256 | 280 | 302 |
Extra patrol request | 205 | 277 | 250 |
Traffic stop | 278 | 351 | 244 |
9-1-1 hang-up call | 181 | 176 | 209 |
Security alarm | 123 | 130 | 126 |
Retail theft | 55 | 46 | 85 |
Vehicle accident | 87 | 91 | 77 |
Meet complainant | 67 | 79 | 70 |
Police services, no fee | 53 | 62 | 59 |
Directed patrol | 64 | 45 | 55 |
These numbers represent entries in the police activity log. They do not necessarily represent confirmed crimes, arrests or criminal charges.
Ambulance requests reached a summer high
Police recorded 302 ambulance-request entries in August, compared with 280 in July and 256 in June.
Ambulance requests accounted for more than 11% of all August police activity.
The log does not explain what role officers played in each response. Police may be dispatched alongside medical personnel for safety, access, traffic control or other assistance.
Traffic stops declined
Traffic stops remained one of the most common police activities, but the number recorded in August was lower than during the previous two months.
Police logged:
278 traffic stops in June
351 in July
244 in August
That represents a decrease of approximately 30% from July. The activity log does not explain why the number of traffic stops changed.
Police also recorded 77 vehicle-accident entries during August, compared with 91 in July and 87 in June.
More 9-1-1 hang-up calls
Upper Merion police recorded 209 9-1-1 hang-up calls in August.
That was higher than the 176 recorded in July and the 181 recorded in June.
A hang-up entry does not necessarily indicate that an emergency occurred. It means a 9-1-1 call ended before dispatchers could establish the nature of the call, requiring some level of follow-up or response.
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Reported offenses and investigations
The August log contained 238 entries involving reported offenses or investigative activity. That represented approximately 9% of all police activity during the month.
These entries should not be read as 238 confirmed crimes. The descriptions record how the activity was classified when it entered the police system. They do not establish that a crime occurred, that someone was arrested or that charges were filed.
Some descriptions, including non-criminal animal complaints and fingerprinting, are expressly not crime reports.
Police description | August entries |
|---|---|
Retail theft | 85 |
Theft report | 19 |
Checks, credit cards or forgery | 16 |
Damage to vehicle | 13 |
Animal complaint, non-criminal | 13 |
Identity theft | 9 |
Assault report | 7 |
Harassment by phone, mail or email | 7 |
Drug arrest | 7 |
Theft from motor vehicle | 7 |
Criminal mischief involving vehicle or property | 6 |
Harassment | 5 |
Damage to property | 5 |
Suicide threat | 5 |
Theft of packages | 5 |
Non-criminal fingerprinting, fee | 4 |
Auto Theft Unit or task-force activity | 3 |
Illegal dumping | 3 |
Terroristic threats | 2 |
Drug investigation | 2 |
Recovered stolen property | 2 |
Theft in progress | 2 |
Armed subject | 2 |
Burglary report | 2 |
Sex offense report | 1 |
Shots fired | 1 |
Trespassing | 1 |
Stabbing | 1 |
Robbery in progress | 1 |
Discharge of a weapon | 1 |
Assault in progress | 1 |
Total | 238 |
Retail theft was by far the most frequently used offense-related description, with 85 entries. It accounted for approximately 36% of this grouping and 3.2% of the complete August activity log.
For comparison, police recorded 55 retail-theft entries in June and 46 in July. The August increase is worth watching in future reports, but one month of higher activity is not enough to establish a continuing trend.
Other noticeable monthly changes
Several other activity descriptions changed during August:
Domestic incidents reported as in progress increased from 32 in July to 53 in August.
Suspicious-vehicle entries increased from 33 to 46.
Juvenile complaints increased from 25 to 40.
Well-being checks decreased from 50 to 31.
Noise, fireworks and barking-dog complaints declined from 44 to eight.
These are changes in the number of logged entries, not necessarily changes in how often each underlying issue occurred.
The broader picture
Traffic and vehicle activity remained the largest overall part of the August log. Public assistance, medical calls, patrols and other routine services also accounted for much of the department’s activity.
Broad activity grouping | August entries | Share |
|---|---|---|
Traffic and vehicle activity | 577 | 21.8% |
Public assistance and administrative activity | 542 | 20.5% |
Medical and fire response | 387 | 14.6% |
Welfare, behavioral and disturbance calls | 369 | 13.9% |
Patrol and preventive activity | 341 | 12.9% |
Reported offenses and investigations | 238 | 9.0% |
Alarms and property security | 149 | 5.6% |
Arrests, warrants and enforcement | 27 | 1.0% |
Agency operations and other activity | 20 | 0.8% |
These broader groupings combine the department’s individual activity descriptions to provide a general picture of police work.
The results again show that a police activity log is much broader than a crime report. Most August entries involved traffic, public assistance, medical responses, patrols, disturbances, alarms and other routine services.
I plan to request these records each month and maintain an ongoing record of Upper Merion police activity. As more complete months become available, it will become easier to distinguish normal monthly variation from longer-term patterns.
Note: This report uses Upper Merion Police Department’s full activity log. Each unique log number was counted once. Separate incident and arrest listings included with the township’s response were not added to the activity total.
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Corey