The Petoskey Public Safety Department released data this week on the number of assaults that occurred in the last five weeks.
Officials say it was to get ahead of claims on social media that the city has become more dangerous. As of Tuesday, police had investigated 11 assault complaints since Dec. 1.
They provided a specific breakdown:
- 3 domestic violence complaints
- 3 juvenile offender assaults
- 1 mutual combatant complaint
- 3 assaults with identified suspects
- 1 assault where it is believed the suspect was located but the victim was unable to identify them as the offender when presented with a photo lineup.
While 10 of the 11 alleged assault complaint investigations are complete, one complaint is still under investigation.
Officials say multiple residents have contacted the department or posted on Facebook with safety concerns.
For example, resident Annette Shalifoe posted in the Facebook bulletin “Emmet County Helping Hands” on Jan. 6 regarding the alleged assault of her 15-year old son. The post got over 100 comments and 250 shares.
In messages to IPR, Shalifoe said her son was randomly attacked on his way to work near Bear River trails.
“Seeing my son the way he was when I picked him up was so scary and heartbreaking,” she said. “I don't ever want to go through that again.”
Public Safety Director Adrian Karr said he put out the Jan. 9 news release to confirm the number of recent cases is not an outlier compared to previous years.
“There's numerous categories of assaults that we've taken,” Karr said. “However, there aren't random assaults running around and happening in our downtown area.”
Karr said an alleged random attack that occurred before the holidays garnered increased attention on social media.
On Dec. 20, the department responded in its own post stating, “while we encourage everyone to remain vigilant in regards to their personal safety, we do not have any open complaints alleging random violent attacks or attacks by multiple assailants.”
“I felt it necessary to put some of that information out because people like to take a small amount of information and then make generalizations,” Karr said. “We feel we have a decent handle on what's going on.”
Shalifoe said she was encouraged by the transparency from the department.
“I know the police don't want people to panic,” she said. “If things like this are happening, then it should be known to the public.”
