NILES — The new year might have just begun, but that didn’t stop police officials from taking a step back and reviewing the police department’s progress throughout 2025.

On Monday, officials released the department’s annual report, a nine-page document that reviews the changes the organization underwent and the changes in police activity over that span.

In the report, police Chief Jay Holland echoed Mayor Steven Mientkiewicz’s praise of the city’s Flock camera system, noting that its benefits continue to be seen, as it has helped solve cases in the area.

“The citywide network of Flock license plate reader cameras continues to pay dividends, solving a near-fatal stabbing on Youngstown Warren Road,” Holland wrote. “I believe Flock is a game changer for community safety, and we have applied for a state grant to add more cameras to our network in the 2026 budget year.”

The report shows the department had 312 fewer calls for service in 2025 compared to 2024’s annual report, receiving 41 fewer calls for shoplifting, 10 fewer calls for burglary and 16 fewer calls for domestic disputes.

The department responded to 91 more crashes in 2025, with the top three locations matching last year’s.

Detective Capt. John Marshall, who serves as the department’s public information officer and oversees its detective bureau, said traffic might be a part of the bureau’s responsibilities, but its traffic officer usually keeps and maintains statistical data on such incidents.

“I know that a great deal of our accidents are usually property damage as opposed to injury accidents,” Marshall said. “With the exception of this year. We had two fatalities due to traffic crashes, which is high for us.”

Marshall said most of the crashes happened on U.S. 422 / Youngstown Warren Road, state Route 46 and Main Street, and state Route 169 / Robbins Avenue because they’re the most heavily traveled roads in the city.

The department’s street crimes / drug unit may have received fewer drug complaints that warranted investigation, with 50 compared to 62 the previous year, but they seized 762 units of drugs in 2025 — compared to 236 in 2024.

“Our street crimes unit, which focuses a lot on drug interdiction-type activity — they actually are pretty aggressive, and have seized quite a bit of contraband narcotics-wise and decent cash,” Marshall said. “We do a lot of undercover work with informants, and we do everything we can do in order to respond to either evidence or reports of drug activity in the city.”

Marshall said the unit focuses on specific target areas — whether it be from a tip or evidence from another case of a similar nature.

The department remained fully staffed with both police and dispatchers, briefly exceeding its 37 authorized members when the city’s administration and council allowed them to hire two candidates from the department’s civil service list — despite having only one vacancy, according to Holland.

Marshall said the department is short an officer in 2026 thus far because of a retirement several days ago.

“We, yesterday, conducted several interviews in order to fill that vacancy,” Marshall said. “We did have an additional officer already on-staff and in training, but that officer opted to follow a different path.”

Marshall said the department should be back at 37 officers within the next few weeks.

With other communities noting how difficult it is to recruit law enforcement personnel because of the pool of candidates being smaller, Marshall said he thought the city was lucky.

“Also at the same time, it’s due to the effort that we put into it — the administrative staff here, the chief and me and the other supervisors — as well as the guys and girls that work here in patrol and dispatch, everybody does really work well together,” Marshall said. “We make an effort to make the police department a better functioning machine. So that carries into reputation a little bit, and we’re able to continue to keep drawing qualified candidates.”