The Turlock Police Department’s August crime analyst numbers show a drop in some of the calls to the police department for the month, but Acting Police Chief Nino Amirfar cautioned the numbers don’t necessarily reflect an actual drop in crime.

The monthly report given to the Turlock City Council shows a drop in the month to month numbers regarding suspicious person and disturbance calls, but Amirfar believes the drop is more attributable to less people reporting incidents rather than an actual drop.

“Don’t let the numbers lead you to a false sense that there is a drop in crime,” Amirfar told the Council. “This is more from less people reporting.”

The police department responded to 197 calls of a suspicious person in August, along with 172 calls of disturbances and 139 security checks. Those three made up the top three calls for service for the department in August.

Year to date the top three calls for service for the police department are: suspicious person (1,403), disturbance (1,235), and suspicious incident (1,028). Between last year and this year there has been a 9 percent drop in the number of suspicious person calls and a 6 percent drop in the rate of disturbance calls. The number of suspicious incident calls from 2015 to 2016 has increased by 3 percent.

The top three crimes reported in August were all theft related. The top was auto burglaries, at 50 reports for the month. This was followed by auto thefts at 46, and residential burglaries at 25. The top three crime for the year to date are: auto theft (425), auto burglary (319) and residential burglary (225).

When it comes to commercial burglaries, Turlock has recorded five for the month of August and 74 for the year to date.

To help encourage more people to report criminal activity the Turlock Police Department launched an email version of their tip line in August. The tip line has resulted in 24 tips, all of which have been addressed and resolved, Amirfar said.

The police department also has been hosting a series of community meetings to address crime prevention and quality of life issues. Additional meetings are planned for 6 p.m. Oct. 12 at Marley Park, 6 p.m. Oct. 13 at Columbia Park, and 6 p.m. Oct. 19 at Crane Park.