BILLINGS — Violent crime has decreased the last year in Billings due to an increased law enforcement effort, according to Billings police.
Chief Rich St. John shared statistics with MTN on Monday afternoon that show a 1 percent drop in all violent crime from 2023 to 2024 during the time frame of January to September.
St. John attributed the improvement to the increased efforts from law enforcement, following one of the most deadly spans in Billings history that saw five homicides in just 15 days last fall.
"All of our partners — local, state and federal — really got after the juvenile crime we were seeing," St. John said recently.
Many of those incidents involved juveniles, including the murder of 19-year-old Rocky Mountain College football player Chandler Stalcup and one-year-old Tatee'k Morrison, who was smothered by the body of his father, Kenneth Morrison, after he was shot.
Both are examples of what was a traumatic week for Billings residents such as Marguerite Felig.
"We were all hurt and felt helpless," Felig said Monday afternoon. "College-aged youth who was senselessly murdered, an infant was killed and his father was shot and there was a high-speed chase. I've never experienced a week that had more concern."
Felig is the current vice president for the South Side Neighborhood Task Force, a city organization that looks to help develop that part of Billings, and said it was frightening to see how much of the youth population was involved during that deadly stretch.
"I had never experienced, anywhere I lived, that kind of exposure," Felig said. "Exposure that had underside that was so unsavory that preyed upon youth."
Two teens were charged in connection with Stalcup's murder, and police said they had ties to gang activity in the community, which added to Felig's concerns. Police said Stalcup was not involved in gangs and appeared to be an innocent bystander.
"Every child should be able to have the opportunity to be in a safe community," Felig said.
Since that week, St. John said his department, along with the help of other agencies, really cracked down. Arrest numbers back up those efforts. In 2023, police made 8,143 arrests and in 2024, that number has risen almost five percent to 8,526 arrests.
"We took off a lot of the major problematic individuals and got them in jail, got them in youth services and got them out of here," St. John said. "It really sent a message that this is unacceptable."
So far, it does appear to be limiting teen involvement. In 2023, police arrested 706 juveniles. This year, there's been a decrease to 573 juveniles, even though total arrests are up.
All signs point toward progress, which St. John is proud of, though he knows the fight against crime will never end.
"We're just one bad weekend away from having issues again, but I think the efforts the community has put forward has really paid dividends," St. John said.
