College Station Police and Fire Department provide update to city council

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – The City of College Station heard several presentations on Thursday, including two from first responders.

College Station Police Department spoke to the city about what it saw in 2023 and compared it to the past four years. In 2023 the police department saw 92,100 calls which were higher than 2022′s 85,130, but lower than 2021′s 85,130.

The police department’s response time also improved for all priorities from 2022 to 2023. P1 call response time was at 6 minutes, P2 calls were at 6:17, P3 8:22 and P4 at 8:53.

Out of those 92,100 calls during 2023, three of them were murders, 84 sexual assaults, eight robberies, 14 aggravated robberies, 97 aggravated assaults, 129 burglaries of a habitation, 449 burglaries of a vehicle, and 105 thefts of firearms.

During the meeting, Chief Bill Couch noted that over the past four years, there have been over 500 firearm thefts from vehicles.

“We try to remind everyone as well as we can to be responsible gun owners and don’t leave it in your vehicle. If you leave it temporarily, certainly don’t leave it unlocked. So we’re still seeing guns ending up on the streets and it’s concerning where they end up,” Couch said.

Arrest data presented during the presentation shows that there were 3,127 arrests made during 2023 which is 98 more than the previous year. Of those arrested 1,127 were residents, 1,977 were no residents and 23 were unknown.

In the College Station Fire Department presentation, they said their call volume had slightly decreased with nearly 12,000 calls in 2023. The fire department response time also saw improvement in 2023 with fire response sitting at 6:35 and EMS at 6:53.

Of the calls they received last year, sick calls had the most at 1514, followed by auto alarm with 1085, fall at 999, major accident at 915, and fire public assist at 715.

During 2023 EMS also transported 70 percent of patients with 91 percent receiving advanced life support care while nine percent received basic life support care during the transport.

Fire Chief Richard Mann said over the past year to two years, the city has invested significantly in EMS after seeing those numbers.

“We’ve invested in paramedic training, we’ve invested in incentivizing paramedics to make that commitment to go through that training and we’ve added additional EMS resource capacities and when you look at this you can tell we’re really putting those resources right where they’re needed,” Mann said.

There was also an update on Fire Station Seven. Mann said right now the next step is figuring out staffing and getting it constructed which is estimated to take 14 to 18 months.

New signs could also be coming to the Southside Historical District after the Southside Neighborhood Association gave a presentation to the city council. The organization has been raising funds for a project that would replace the green street signs with maroon-colored signs. This would be to commemorate the area’s 100th anniversary. A home tour will also be held in the future to show off the history of the area.