Full staffing makes a difference in 2024 Pendleton crime statistics

By Terry Murry on Thursday, January 9th, 2025 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

PENDLETON – After years of being short staffed, the Pendleton Police Department became fully staffed last year. In addition, four new officer positions were added and filled due to a community policing grant the department received.

Police Chief Chuck Byram said that as they look back over the numbers for 2024, he sees a big change. His goal has always been to have officer-initiated calls at least equal to calls for service coming from Umatilla County Emergency Dispatch. He added that he’d love to see officer-initiated calls outweigh calls for service. That’s what happened.

“In 2024, we took 28,685 total calls for service,” he said. “We had 13,764 dispatch calls for service and 14,921 officer-initiated calls.” Byram said this is just a snapshot of 2024 statistics. His department is working on an in-depth analysis that will be presented to the Pendleton City Council once it’s completed.