Chat With The Chief: Maple Grove’s Eric Werner Talks Crime Trends
Maple Grove Police Chief Eric Werner said his officers are using new criteria to measure crime stats in the city, and it allows his department to better determine how crimes may be related–and where they could happen again. Werner said the city followed the FBI’s National Incident Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, to compile crime stats in 2024.
Maple Grove Police Chief Eric Werner and CCX Cities’ Rusty Ray.
“We essentially gather 50 categories per crime versus the old method where we gathered ten,” he said. “We were slightly up (in 2024 compared to 2023), but when you take a look at the bigger picture, we’ve been pretty consistent over the last several years.”
One area that saw a dramatic decrease was in car thefts.
“I think that’s the attention, metro-wide, that’s been put on it, the education as well as the enforcement in other agencies and ours,” Werner told CCX Cities’ Rusty Ray as part of the quarterly Chat with the Chief series.
Werner said his department is also going to work with business leaders and owners in Maple Grove to continue to study the best ways to fight retail-related crimes like shoplifting and burglaries. He wants to seek using sophisticated cameras that can automatically track and register car license plates to track movements of suspects and possible fugitives.
“That can help us reduce the amount of personnel resources we put out but also will help us gather intelligence while we protect safety,” said Werner. “We can take a deeper dive and try and not only see the trends but also be predictive with the data we have.
