Bridgeport Police recorded 3,225 activity entries during June, July and August, according to the department’s weekly public blotters.

The records provide a detailed look at what officers spent time doing throughout the summer. They include traffic enforcement, patrols, medical assistance, phone calls, alarms, welfare checks, administrative work and reported incidents.

They are not simply a record of crime.

July had the highest overall activity total, but the department averaged between 34 and 36 entries per day during each of the three months.

Activity increased 10.5% from June to July before declining 4.6% in August.

Despite those monthly changes, the daily averages suggest that the department’s overall activity level remained fairly consistent throughout the summer.

Traffic enforcement and stops were the most common activity recorded by Bridgeport Police, with 955 entries during the three-month period.

Directed patrols were second, with 665 entries.

Together, those two classifications accounted for 1,620 entries, or 50.2% of everything published in the summer blotters.

That pattern was remarkably consistent. Roughly half of the department’s recorded activity involved traffic enforcement or officers conducting directed patrols during each month.

A traffic-enforcement or stop entry does not necessarily mean that a citation was issued. A directed patrol generally refers to an officer intentionally patrolling a particular location or area, often through an assignment or request.

Traffic enforcement and directed patrols were far ahead of every other individual activity type.

“Call by phone” was the third-most-common classification, with 202 entries. The number was also very consistent, ranging from 64 to 71 per month.

Police-information entries, which generally refer to information received, documented or provided without a more specific classification, totaled 112.

Bridgeport Police recorded 102 medical-assistance entries during the summer:

Medical-assistance entries indicate that police responded to help with a medical incident, often alongside emergency medical personnel.

The August total was nine higher than either of the previous two months. It will take additional months of data to determine whether that was a temporary increase or the beginning of a longer pattern.

A few other classifications reached their highest summer levels in August:

These are increases in logged activity, not necessarily increases in criminal activity.

For example, a nonresidential burglary or holdup alarm records an alarm response. It does not establish that a burglary or holdup occurred.

The increases are worth continuing to track, but three months of records are not enough to establish a long-term trend.

The department recorded 79 entries classified as either a 9-1-1 hang-up or welfare check during the summer:

Suspicious-activity entries were similarly stable, with 29 in June, 23 in July and 27 in August.

Family or domestic-offense entries also changed very little, with 10 in June, 10 in July and 11 in August.

The clearest takeaway from Bridgeport’s summer blotters is that much of the department’s recorded work involved traffic enforcement, patrol presence and routine public-service activity.

Traffic enforcement and directed patrols alone made up half of the complete activity log. Phone calls, medical assistance, information reports, welfare checks, building checks, parking complaints and assistance to other agencies accounted for hundreds of additional entries.

This report establishes a baseline for tracking Bridgeport Police activity over time. I will continue collecting the department’s weekly blotters and reporting on monthly changes and longer-term patterns as more data becomes available.

Note: I reviewed 14 weekly blotters published by the Bridgeport Police Department covering June 1 through August 31. Each published case number was counted once. The activity classifications describe how police recorded an entry and do not necessarily indicate that a crime occurred, an arrest was made or charges were filed.

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Thank you for reading,

Corey