Behind a sharp rise in DWI cases, Wrightsville Beach saw another uptick in criminal statistics and ordinance violations, as a fully-staffed police last summer force made more cases on drugs, weapons and DWI, while also writing more tickets for glass, alcohol and littering.
Wrightsville Beach police filed more than five times the amount of DWI charges in the
One of the sharpest jumps was in DWI charges, where Wrightsville Beach police made 27 arrests between July and September in 2016, more than five times than during the same period last year, where police made just five arrests.
There was a drop in vandalism, from 25 cases to 13, but Police Chief Dan House wasn’t able to correlate it to increased patrols.
Police and the town’s park ranger also wrote more tickets for beach violations, where civil fines are issues. The biggest jump was in alcohol tickets, where officials issued 224 tickets, compared to 135 tickets last year.
After four straight quarters with lower statistics, partly due to a short-staffed department in summer 2015, Wrightsville Beach police reported the first rise in criminal statistics in July, which police officials anticipated with a larger force to increase enforcement.
Other quarterly police statistics include:
Wrightsville Beach Police Statistics, Third Quarter 2016
