Clear Lake police present 2025 annual report; awards for detective and dispatcher

The Clear Lake Police Department presented its 2025 annual report at the council meeting, summarizing crime trends, staffing, training, and community engagement and recognizing employees for service.

Chief Hobbs described reporting changes and trends across three reporting categories (crimes against persons, property, and society), noting an increase in store and grocery theft reports tied to recent state reporting law changes and overall counts close to 10‑year lows in many categories. He gave figures including roughly 38,249 documented contacts, 3,800 evidence items processed, 106 firearms seized, and a drop in uses of force (from 30 to 19) and taser uses (from 4 to 0). Response time averages were reported (priority 1 up ~19 seconds, priority 2 up ~7 seconds, priority 3 up ~68 seconds) with caveats about timestamping procedures.

Chief Hobbs also reviewed recruitment and training numbers: 3,464 hours of POST‑certified (POST) training and 608 non‑POST training hours. The department recognized Detective Chris Kelleher as detective of the year and Dispatcher Amanda Nobriga as dispatcher of the year, and acknowledged other service awards and a new K‑9 team.

Council members asked questions about staffing and code enforcement impacts on incident counts; Chief Hobbs said some increases reflect proactive enforcement and increased reporting rather than more underlying crime in some categories.