Merced Police Chief Steven Stanfield took an opportunity at the podium to provide a five-year update on his department’s crime and operational statistics during Monday night’s City Council meeting.
Public safety in this fast-growing city continues to be a top concern among local residents, according to city outreach polling, so fortunately Stanfield had some encouraging news to share on efforts to curb traffic accidents, burglaries, auto theft, shoplifting, robberies and assaults.
“When I came here at end of 2023, early 2024, it was abundantly clear to me that this community was very concerned about the number of traffic accidents that we were seeing in our town on a regular basis — including traffic fatalities, our crash numbers, and just generalized traffic enforcement in our community,” Stanfield explained. “We really have worked hard by trying to introduce red light cameras to the city, introduce some additional traffic enforcement officers, and this year, we are seeing extremely good numbers when it comes to accident incidents in our city.”
So far this year, there have been 1,236 accident incidents, compared to 2,074 for all of 2025, and 2,628 in 2022, the highest point over the past five years. “Unless we have two horrible months — November, December — which we won’t, we are on pace for a record low over the last three years,” Stanfield said.
Documented accident reports have also declined sharply, from 1,532 in 2021 to 456 so far this year. And fatal traffic collision numbers have gone from 13 in 2024 and 8 in 2025 to only two so far this year.
“These are direct results of positive enforcement, better driving, and our citizens taking caution when they’re driving,” he said. “These are numbers that make us very happy.”
Meanwhile, MPD’s citation issuance has been way up. Last year, officers issued nearly 6,000 tickets compared to 1,441 in 2024. So far this year, there’s been 4,255 issued, and Stanfield predicts his department will once again exceed 6,000 tickets issued by the end of this year.
Decline in burglaries
Residential burglaries (127 so far this year), commercial burglaries (87) and auto burglaries (288) are all way down over the past five years, Stanfield said.
While shoplifting and organized retail theft have risen along with the growth of commercial retail in town, the numbers appear to be leveling off with the department’s effort to create an organized retail theft task force, led by Lieutenant Kalvin Haygood along with support from county law enforcement. There’s been 517 shoplifting cases this year compared to 603 last year.
“One of the numbers that we have is: Out of the last 21 retail thefts, 20 have been solved with the use of technology. … So we are very happy with the progress they’re making, and we’re leading the way.”
The chief said improved staffing at the department has led to quicker response times, and therefore store owners are more willing to report a shoplifter.
“Lieutenant Haygood’s team has partnered with a business group that has kind of formed. Instead of Neighborhood Watch, we jokingly call it Business Watch. So they have these Business Watch meetings where they meet, collaborate, and find out things like if somebody is stealing from Home Depot, they might potentially be the same person stealing from the supermarket. The owners share this information, and they work together, and they’re much more open about calling us. If they feel like something’s being done with it, the more they are willing to prosecute it.”
Auto theft
Auto thefts are down from a high of 576 in 2021, to 303 in 2025, and 170 so far this year.
“We are really proud about these numbers,” Chief Stanfield said. “Auto theft has been the scourge of the Central Valley ever since I have been an officer, and I started in 1997. I remember being in the academy and being told that ‘Auto theft is going to be one of the biggest things you deal with, most of your career,’ and most of my career, we have dealt with auto theft. I can remember the Central Valley being No. 1 in the nation for auto theft.”
Stanfield added that his area commanders are targeting suspects and working with the DA to hold criminals accountable. His department also hands out driver’s wheel locks in the community to discourage car thefts.
Robberies & Assaults
Robberies — the felony taking of an item from person to another, usually by force or fear — are down. A five-year high was reported in 2023 with 178 robberies. So far this year there have been 99, compared to last year at 121.
Assaults are down across the board — this includes misdemeanor assaults (910 so far this year compared to 1,350 in 2025) and felony aggravated assaults (331 so far this year compared to 501 in 2025).
Homicides are up
There have been nine homicide cases recorded so far this year compared to six for all of last year.
Says Chief Stanfield: “We believe in not hiding the bad either, so we started off this year pretty rough. We had six homicides in the first two months of the year. … In February, we started really addressing what was going on and dealing with the root cause of the problem. And if you take out the two bad months we had, we’ve had a really low homicide rate, but it is what it is. We’re sitting at nine this year. And we are hoping that is it for the year. And so we’re gonna continue to address the causes of these. The majority of the homicides from the beginning of the year, I think it’s fair to say, are gang related.”
Citizen complaints
Citizen complaints have dropped sharply from last year’s 73 reports to 43 so far this year. Of those, 32 resulted in being considered unfounded. Meanwhile the department has conducted seven internal affairs investigations this year, about the same as last year; however, the number represents a 50 percent reduction since 2023 when they were at 14.
Use of force
Another sharp reduction has been recorded in the “Use of force” category. There have been 81 incidents so far this year, compared to 132 in 2025, and 133 in 2024. Chief Stanfield attributes the decline to transitioning shotguns to less lethal bean bag shotguns, and the introduction of canines.
Calls for service
So far this year, there have been 112,059 calls for service that have come into the department’s dispatch center. Last year the total number was 145,135.
The number of incidents that officers actually responded to is listed at 61,858 this year, compared to 77,190 for all of 2025.
Cases where a report was filed is at 9,306 so far this year, compared to 12,441 for all of 2025. The MPD projects it will end 2026 with 12,408 reported cases for the year.
Staffing
Over the past five years, the department has maintained a budget for 98 officers each year, with filled positions being at 94 over the past two years.
“When I came here in 2023, we were at 86,” Stanfield said, “and we’ve been slowly on the rise, and we’ve been at 94, which is our allocated numbers. We have four holdback positions that we are doing on purpose to make sure we have budget sustainability.
But we’ve been at 94 now, and it’s a nice position for us to be in. When we have a retirement, we have lateral officers [from other cities and departments] who are waiting for opportunities here. They are trained. They don’t cost us anything. We don’t have to pay for academies, but they’re waiting at other agencies for an opportunity to come work here in Merced.”
Chief Stanfield also noted a number of department initiatives, including the Police Activities League that offers kids a variety of opportunities; the Citizens Academy training workshop, leadership training for police sergeants, and autism training for all officers. “We’ve added a downtown officer. We’ve expanded our motor fleet. Our detectives’ unit is full, and our gang unit is as full as we can do right now.”
Population
The population of Merced is sitting at 99,435. Chief Stanfield said his department conducted an analysis and found that the population will rise to an estimated 109,600 by 2030.
“We thought this was important to get in front of everybody. … We’ve had steady population growth, with some real extreme population growth in the last couple years.”
Parting words
“I think I would be remiss in saying that these numbers do not reflect one thing — which is the outstanding work that our officers do each and every day. It’s not just the officers, but the dispatchers, the records clerks, the community service officers, the animal control officers. Every member of your police department works extremely hard for you. They love being employed here, and it is a direct reflection on the support that this Council gives them, and we are so thankful to work in this community.
“Most of our staff live right here in Merced. They go to school here. They live here. Their parents are from here. They went to high school here, and they loved being here. And this is a reflection of your support, and most importantly, the community support, the community who treats them so wonderfully.
“And this is a great agency, and we are seeing some great numbers, and we just wanted to give you a five-year update, and thank you for all your support and all the wonderful things you do. And I wanted to publicly thank the staff for all the hard work they do, because they work very hard for this community. And I am so thankful. I know our city manager reminds me all the time how appreciative he is. So thank you all.”