If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?

Apparently, the Oxford Village Police Department.

Last year, the department recorded 5,656 calls for service, an increase of 73 from the year before.

“Calls for service (encompass) any and all contact we have with the public,” said Police Chief Mike Solwold.

That includes everything from criminal complaints and traffic stops to citizen assists, medical calls and vehicle lockouts.

“Basically, anything the officer has to respond to or has to deal with,” Solwold explained. “By no means does it mean we had 5,000 crimes going on in that year.”

The agency dealt with 5,243 traffic violations last year, 138 more than in 2017. They weren’t all separate incidents because a single traffic stop can involve multiple violations.

Oxford officers issued a total of 1,442 traffic citations to drivers. The rest were given warnings.

“I still believe that some folks deserve a warning (for minor violations) if they have a good (driving) record and they have a good demeanor,” Solwold said. “I think people deserve a second chance.”

The “severity” of the violation is taken into account, he noted. “Obviously, if it’s a more serious charge (like drunken driving), then that’s something that would have to be dealt with differently,” Solwold said.

Despite what some members of the public may believe, the chief said writing tickets is not a “money grab” for the agency.

“We don’t make a ton of money off these tickets,” he explained. “After prosecutors and judges and the courts get their take, it’s not anywhere near anything that’s going to pay our wages or our light bill.”

“We couldn’t survive off the tickets that we write,” Solwold noted.

Traffic accidents were down in the village. A total of 67 occurred last year as opposed to 90 the year before.

Solwold attributed this drop to a combination of “luck,” better weather conditions and his agency’s increased traffic enforcement efforts on M-24.

“That’s where we get a majority of the accidents,” the chief said. “We were coming down pretty hard on M-24, watching (motorist) speeds . . . Because we concentrated more of our time on M-24, I’d like to think that is why the number dropped.”

There were also increased enforcement efforts on Burdick St.

“Everybody always complains about the east and west sides where people are trying to jump off M-24 and avoid downtown and get over to either Lakeville Rd. or Seymour Lake Rd.,” Solwold said. “That’s been a big concern for several years in this town because M-24 is so busy, everybody’s trying to do what they can to bypass it.”

“The biggest complaint, it seems like, in this town is traffic . . . As long as we stay on (it) and we try to keep the numbers where they’re at and we can keep accidents down, I think that’s a good thing,” he added.

Looking ahead, Solwold would like to add another full-time officer to the department.

“That’s one of the things I’m going to ask for this year,” he said.

Currently, the agency has three full-time officers, not including the chief, and six part-time officers.

Adding another full-timer would enable the village to cover every 12-hour shift with a full-time officer seven days a week, according to Solwold.

“We had a fourth full-time position back in 2008 and then when the economy tanked, we lost that position,” he said. “So actually, I’m just asking for a position back . . . Hopefully, that’s something we can do.”

Right now, the chief is using a combination of himself and part-time staff to cover that fourth position, but he would rather not continue doing that.

“Part-time staff should be used for filling in for guys when they take vacation (time) or they call in sick or (there’s a need for) an extra person for a special event, not (as part of) a 40-hour rotation,” Solwold said. “That’s a lot to ask somebody to do because most of these part-time guys have other jobs.”

Having a full-time officer who is looking to “plant their roots” versus part-timers, who typically view smaller agencies as “a stepping stone” to full-time positions elsewhere, is preferable to Solwold because it gives the department more “consistency” and “continuity” in its staffing.

“I’ve had a few (part-time officers who were) gems that have left us over the years,” he said. “(They) would have loved to have stayed here and worked, but they want to get their health benefits and start their pension. You can’t fault them for that.”

In addition to manpower, Solwold would like to get some new equipment.

He wants portable scales to help with enforcing commercial vehicle weight limits on M-24, especially when it comes to the many gravel trucks that travel the state highway on a daily basis.

That will be particularly important after the M-24 reconstruction project is completed in 2020, Solwold noted.

In order to keep the highway’s condition “nice for a long time,” the chief said “we need to start (weighing) these vehicles” to ensure they’re complying with the law and not damaging the road.