Duluth Police Department releases its annual report

DULUTH, Minn — The Duluth Police Department released its Annual Report for 2024.

This report includes some of the facts and figures of 2024.

It also gives and overview of their accomplishments and outlines the goals for 2025.

One notable change is a significant decrease in both Opioid Related Overdoses and fatalities related to those overdoses.

Chief Cenowa attributed the decrease to the combination of enforcement, having partnerships with service providers, and increased community awareness.

“One of the things we know is that we’re not going to arrest our way out of the opioid epidemic, but we have very talented investigative staff in our Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force.” said Chief Mike Cenowa of the Duluth Police Department, “Additionally, we have a behavioral health unit, that behavioral health unit works with people who are experiencing substance use disorder along with mental health issues, with a variety of social service providers throughout our community.”

Part of the community awareness includes the increased access to Narcan.

Even some local businesses began keeping Narcan on hand for emergencies.

Another highlight was the work they’ve done to make the city safer.

“Our staff did tremendous work on some major cases. I think you’ve even seen some of that come to fruition over the last few weeks, with some of the press releases that have been going out on convictions and sentences of pretty dangerous individuals, people who have, you know, taken advantage of members of our community. So, I think that is a huge highlight and accomplishment from 2024” said Chief Cenowa.

One major goal for this year is recruiting and retention.

A significant amount of officers are becoming eligible for retirement over new officers coming in.

The report and other data can be found on the DPD website.