In a press conference Jan. 26, Chief of Police Michael O’Brien released various crime statistics for 2016.

Violent crime rates in Chico are down 16 percent since 2015. Total crime is down 5 percent from 2015.

“Most Californian communities are not seeing a decrease they are seeing an increase [in crime],” O’Brien said.

In 2016 police responded to 72,952 calls, but out of those, only 51 required the use of forces by officers.

The number of victims of crimes is also declining. There were 4,405 victims of crimes in 2015 compared to 4,176 in 2016.

Complaints against the Chico Police Department have been declining in recent years as well. 2016 marks an all-time low in the past six years.

Daniel Wright can be reached at [email protected] or @danny_w_chico on Twitter.