LONGVIEW — Longview police are seeing a rise in emergency calls this year.
The Longview City Council received a report last Thursday from Longview Police Chief Robert Huhta with an update on the department’s growing number of calls. Through August, Longview police saw a 15 percent increase in all 911 calls compared to the first eight months of 2021.
The largest increase was for calls about impounding cars and illegal parking, which more than quadrupled compared to last year. High-priority calls increased from 769 calls last year to 996 this year.
Based on previous annual reports by Longview police, the department’s number of service calls had declined for six straight years after 2014, when just over 50,000 calls were placed. Last year saw the number of calls increase from 33,700 to 34,900.
Huhta also gave a specific update about calls in the Highlands neighborhood, based on requests from residents about the impacts of the homeless camp on Alabama Street near the neighborhood or other unhoused individuals. He said the Longview police had received 3,402 calls to the area between Jan. 1 and June 6, up slightly from the last two years.
