Hattiesburg crime rate

Hattiesburg, Miss. - The Hattiesburg Police Department has released its crime statistics report from 2015.

According to Lt. Jon Traxler, a majority of crime categories have gone down.

However, a few have increased.

Hattiesburg Police Officer, Lt. Jon Traxler said, "One thing that stood out to us is that we noticed by mid-year that we were already at a 12 percent increase based on what it was last year. As you know, we did get a new chief in August. That chief came in and made some changes and stuff. We did a few things different and by the end of the year, the crime rate was only up four percent, which was a drop in what it was from mid-year to end-year. So that was one thing that we saw as a positive. So we're going to keep working on those measures as well as implementing a few others."

Traxler also said the department is adding more officers to their force in an effort to help maintain the lower crime rate.