Billings police presented their annual crime report to the Billings City Council, showing homicides fell from 15 to five and property crime dropped 21 percent compared to 2024.
The Billings Police Department's 2025 annual report shows significant reductions in some of the city's most closely watched crime categories.
Watch Billings Police report story here:
Assistant Chief Shawn Mayo presented the findings to the city council.
"First thing that (Chief Rich St. John) likes to do is get the bottom line right up front, and crime is down," Mayo said. "In categories that affect our people the most."
Mayo suggested the decrease in property crime may be connected to capacity at the local detention facility.
"They have room for a significant number of people in that facility, even on the first floor, I want to say it's 33," Mayo said. "So if that number continues to bump up a little bit because we're having more businesses start calling in, I think we'll be able to roll with that."
Total calls for service increased 7 percent, surpassing 81,000. The department's more than 7,400 arrests represent the highest total in five years.
Some Billings residents who spoke with MTN News Monday said they were unaware of major changes, while others pointed to specific improvements they had noticed firsthand.
"Well, we've been trying to get the homeless out of here sometimes to hang out," Dawn Frizzins said. "But my manager told me that just cold cops, so that's all I do. So there's not much they can do about that."
Janice Kappel credited police with reducing street racing on 24th Street West.
"I would say that it was a nightly occurrence, and usually late at night or early in the morning, and now you hardly hear," Kappel said.
Amanda Carlson said she had not noticed the changes but welcomed the news.
"I hadn't been aware, I guess, of any major changes. So would, hard to spot it. Yeah, I guess I haven't noticed. I mean that's great. That's fantastic that it's down," Carlson said.
Riki Carlson pointed to mental health as an ongoing concern for the community.
"The mental health examination of Billings, Montana, was still pretty high and hopefully that shows that we are trying to take care of that," Carlson said.
Mayo emphasized that the various categories of crime are rarely isolated from one another.
"Almost everything is intertwined in some fashion, whether the domestic violence is fueled by drug or alcohol addictions, or whether the theft is due to trying to get money to buy more drugs or do something else," Mayo said.
Dan Brooks of the Billings Chamber of Commerce also weighed in on the report's significance.
"Seeing those trend lines go down is just good for all of Billings, but particularly to the business community. We're excited to see those numbers go down," Brooks said at the Council meeting.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
