Mountain Brook saw crime dip in 2019

The Mountain Brook Police Department in 2019 fielded its fewest number of calls in seven years. From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, it received 23,421 service calls, down from 27,246 in 2018 and close to the 23,155 it took in 2012.

The activity decrease coincided with an overall crime decline in Mountain Brook last year. Of all the crime stats compiled annually by Police Chief Ted Cook, only two offenses — auto thefts and assaults — grew modestly in number. The others remained steady or dipped.

“I would tell you that the main thing that accounts for it is the men and women who patrol the streets of Mountain Brook and the hard work that they do,” Cook said, “and the efforts that our patrol division makes to be sure that we’re fully staffed every day, that those cars are out there and being seen.”

Cook said police visibility deters crime in the community. That’s especially important in Mountain Brook because most crimes are committed by people who live outside the city limits, he said.

“When that bad guy drives through, and he drives in and he sees a police car with a car stopped, he’s not going to go to the next block,” Cook said.

MBPD didn’t record a robbery in 2019 for the first time all decade after recording six in both 2017 and 2018. Meanwhile, the department registered only 21 residential burglaries, half as many as occurred in 2018.

Last May, Cook held a press conference urging residents to install Ring doorbell cameras and use the company’s free Neighbors app to monitor and report suspicious activity. He attributes the drop partially to his recommendation.

“With the proliferation of home security camera systems being out there, I think that that would play a role,” Cook said. “Sometimes, our criminal activity is a little cyclical also. A lot of times it depends on who is out of prison at the moment.”

Furthermore, reports of identity theft fell significantly, from 140 in 2018 to 91 last year. That figure is more in line with the numbers documented from 2015-17.

“I think it might show that last year was a spike, an anomaly spike, because this year’s number reflects a little closer to other, more recent years,” Cook said. “And then sometimes crimes like identity theft go up and down based on people and their reporting habits, whether or not they even want to report that they had that happen to them.”

Drug arrests dropped from 139 in 2018 to 104 last year, while reports of theft and family violence also declined. All of those trends heartened Cook, who said his department — like others around the country — continues to battle personnel shortages amid negative press and a tight labor market.

“When the economy is good and there’s fewer people out of jobs, that are looking for jobs, then it’s harder for us to find someone to hire,” Cook said.

Notably, Mountain Brook recorded one homicide in 2019. Cook said it was the city’s first in 17 years and one of only three or four in the past quarter-century. He praised his department for how it handled the case, quickly identifying the victim, Megan Montgomery, and suspect, Jason McIntosh. Neither were city residents.

MBPD booked McIntosh, who worked for MBPD about two decades ago, within a day of the crime. He now faces a capital murder charge.

“Ultimately, the depth of the investigation and the charges that were able to be brought show that we didn’t show any partiality,” Cook said. “We identified a suspect, followed the investigation exactly how it led us and brought the most appropriate charge for the case that we had.”