GALT, CA - Compared to the previous year, the Galt Police Department saw a 57% spike in the number of traffic stops, according to an annual report given to Galt City Council on Tuesday, Feb. 18.

In total, the Galt Police Department stopped 3,956 motorists in 2024, compared to 2,543 in 2023.

The department’s annual report highlights crime trends in the city, as well as personnel and department protocol changes. Police Chief Brian Kalinowski said the increase reflects community desires for officers to help tamp down traffic concerns in the city.

“You hear it often, traffic complaints in the community,” Kalinowski said. “We hear it on the regular and every community hears it, whether it is around the schools or in high-traffic areas…but staff worked hard to increase traffic stops.”

According to the report, Galt Police arrested 112 people in 2024 for DUIs and responded to 24 DUI collisions. In total, they issued 1,453 citations, compared to 1,062 in 2023 and 983 in 2022.

They also towed 342 vehicles, mostly for parking citations.

“I was really happy to see a huge increase in the traffic stops,” Mayor Shawn Farmer said. “Obviously as you stated, chief, one of the No. 1 complaints we always hear in our small town because we don’t have lots of homicides and serious crimes is traffic stuff. It’s a big topic. So I’m happy to see that many traffic stops because that is a No. 1 concern for people.”

Galt Police responded to 29,994 incidents in 2024, an increase of 542 from the previous year. Most of those incidents, 15,415, were officer initiated, according to the report, an increase of 1,262.

The increase comes as calls for service from the community fell by 810: 15,389 the year before to 14,579 in 2024.

“The way I read that is you guys are being very proactive,” Farmer said.

Council member Tim Reed implored the community to read the report to see that the department is “doing everything they can to stop these people from speeding in your neighborhood and running these stop signs.”

According to the report, Galt Police arrested 480 people for misdemeanors and 188 people for felonies, an increase of 93 and six, respectively.

Galt Police also reported that nearly 43% of all drugs seized by the department was fentanyl in 2024, with another 49% being methamphetamine. The remaining 8% were from a mixture of other various drugs, including heroin.

“The two main ones in Galt are methamphetamines and fentanyl,” Kalinowski said, “and we are very acutely aware of that based on our efforts with lifesaving activities and the work done by the district attorney’s office with the fentanyl task force and the information we get from the coroner’s office. There has actually been a reduction in those activities, so that is nice to see.”

Rapes increased from three in 2023 to eight in 2024, while statutory rapes decreased from three to two the previous year.

Aggravated assault also decreased from 95 in 2023 to 77 in 2024, while simple assault increased from 180 in 2023 to 191 in 2024. Other crimes, including larceny and burglary, all decreased.

There were no homicides in Galt in 2023 or 2024.

According to the report, 94% of calls to dispatch were answered within 10 seconds, with 26.7% of the 29,390 calls received being to 911, and the remaining 73.3% being non-emergency calls. Kalinowski said the industry standard is at least 90% of calls answered in 10 seconds.

Reed, who worked for as a dispatcher in the past, commended the dispatch centers statistics.

“Just to show you how well they are doing, it’s almost 95% and some of the times when there are very little dispatchers in there,” Reed said, “and I have worked in dispatch centers that were much larger than that. It was hard to get that 90%, so them getting 94.2 is actually very, very good.”

Kalinowski also highlighted K9 Kane, who retired on Christmas after being deployed 250 times. Kane was responsible for 145 arrests and played a key role in locating 87 suspects, per the report.

The full report can be found online at cityofgalt.org/government/police-department.