Normal Police saw stagnant crime and staff but new technology in the past year
Normal Police saw stagnant crime and staff but new technology in the past year
Publish Date: 2026-03-24 04:00:00
Source Domain: www.wglt.org
Total crime data for the Town of Normal remains somewhat even from 2024 to 2025, but Normal Police Chief Steve Petrilli said there are still signs of improvement.
“The most significant area, though, would be in our reduction in shootings,” Petrilli said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
“I’m really proud of the fact that we’re over 61% reduction in shooting incidents.”
Weapons-related offenses were down in the town from 68 cases to 40. Petrilli said he sees national numbers in violent crime trending downward.
“I’m hoping and I believe that here in our local community, it’s a concerted effort of education enforcement,” he said.
Petrilli cited the town’s aggressive stance on public ordinances as another reason for tampering down on violent crime, especially instances related to public alcohol use.
“…trying to ensure that folks are not spilling out into the streets consuming alcohol, because that leads to property damage and escalation, fights, things like that,” he said.
“So, I think alcohol plays a role. I think we do a good job here locally of setting the boundaries for not just the student population but for the entire town.”
Cases of shots fired dropped from 26 to 10 and property damage fell from 14 to 3.
The Normal Police Department [NPD] has also employed other strategies to reduce crime, ones which Petrilli described as a proactive approach to crime.
“That’s a lot of our resources when we have officers out there proactively making traffic stops, searching vehicles when appropriate, that is geared towards being an interdiction of not just guns and drugs, but the criminal element in and of itself,” he said.
Meanwhile, vehicle burglaries were up from 81 in 2024 to 107 in 2025.
“Generally, motor vehicle burglaries is a crime of opportunity,” Petrilli said.
Petrilli said perpetrators tend to see a car left unoccupied with doors unlocked, windows open or valuables in sight. That is an…
