With 2025 coming to a close, end-of-year crime data shows shoplifting down nearly 30% in the 14th Police District, which includes Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, parts of Germantown and West Oak Lane, and Cedarbrook.

According to year-to-date crime data from Nov. 23, retail theft is down 29.6%, with 1,135 incidents in 2024 compared to 799 in 2025. Thefts from auto dropped 17.14%, along with 23.26% and 12.21% drops in armed robbery and residential burglary, respectively.

Shooting incidents (which include times when guns are fired but no one is hit) saw a 25.96% decrease, while shooting victims increased slightly from 36 to 37.

Stolen autos saw a slight increase of 1.72% along with a 4.74% increase in aggravated assault without a gun and a 5% decrease in aggravated assault with a gun. Theft of vehicle tags also increased by 13.19%.

When Stuart McCoullum took over as captain of the 14th District in 2024, one of his goals was to increase communication with local businesses and community members. In an interview with the Local last year, McCoullum spoke of community-style policing, where local residents and businesses knew the names of the officers in their district, and could easily contact them.

Now, for the issue of shoplifting, McCoullum attributes the drop in incidents to regular communication with businesses, unscheduled check-ins from officers, and increased foot patrols around commercial corridors.

“We have a list of the top locations, Wawa, for instance, where we have more retail thefts occurring than others. We deployed officers to that area on foot, on bike patrol, and they check these stores routinely,” McCoullum told the Local last week. “My officers have the contact information of the managers, owners, and employees of a lot of these establishments, and they have my officers’ contact information with their city-issued cell phones. They’ll call them directly, and they built up a good rapport to where it’s sped up our response time.”

Crime is being deterred, he said, “simply by conducting unscheduled checks. And it doesn’t just deter retail thefts. It also deterred commercial robberies and assaults that were happening in and around these stores, as well as other quality-of-life issues. So it’s definitely been a collaborative approach.”

While it’s hard for businesses to notice whether shoplifting increased or decreased, Janis Risch, executive director of the Mt. Airy Business District, says the increased presence and communication from police is being felt.

“The decrease in shoplifting can be attributed directly to the foot patrol officers who’ve been assigned to our commercial corridor over the past year,” Risch told the Local. “It’s being a presence and being able to respond quickly when they’ve gotten calls of shoplifting in action.”

She added, “The primary targets for the shoplifting have been the supermarkets, both ACME, Wawa, and Grocery Outlet … While they’re there, they’ve been able to respond to other issues, like cars parked illegally.”

McCoullum said that in prior years, businesses were not reporting shoplifting incidents as often. While this lowered the number of reports, the effect was still noticeable.

“When shoplifting isn’t in control, the viability of those businesses is at risk, and then everyone suffers if they leave,” Risch said.

McCoullum added, “Obviously, there’s still crimes happening, so we still have quite a bit of work to do, but it’s definitely trending in the direction we want it to be, which is the overall reduction of these thefts being committed in and around these locations.”

Other targets

Earlier this year, Councilwoman Cindy Bass introduced a handful of bills targeting nuisance businesses like corner stores or smoke shops which operate illegally, selling items like individual cigarettes.

McCoullum also looked to target nuisance businesses this year. For part of that effort, he formed a nuisance business enforcement team.

“The nuisance business enforcement team functions with officers’ personal observations, but mainly from community feedback, calls, emails, things like that. Businesses that the community or the public informs us are operating illegally,” McCoullum said. “My officers conduct routine checks, unscheduled checks, with L&I to ensure compliance. Those found that are non-compliant with city ordinances, they get fined.”

He added, “We’ve had some stores shut down permanently, and some shut down on a temporary basis, but they corrected their infractions.”

Another consistent issue in the 14th District has been auto theft, with a slight increase of 928 incidents in 2024 to 944 in 2025, according to the Nov. 23 crime data.

McCoullum said that technology has made it easier for criminals to steal some modern car models.

“A lot of these crimes have been driven by specific vehicles being targeted -- Hyundais, Kias, Hondas, especially in all those models that have the push start capability,” he said. “They’re able to reprogram blank key fobs, and then they drive off with the vehicle. And it literally takes anywhere from a minute to a minute and a half for them to do it. So it’s definitely been challenging and frustrating for us.”

He added, “But what we’ve been doing is communicating with a lot of people in terms of so many people have Ring cameras now. And a lot of times people weren’t checking their Ring cameras … People have been checking their Ring cameras and actually have people on camera pulling up in other vehicles, some plates we’ve been able to read some not, but we’ve been able to get general descriptions of people walking up and down the street trying door handles. So we’ve been getting information and trying to increase the solvability of a lot of these jobs.”

Looking ahead, in 2026, McCoullum looks to increase the amount of foot and bike patrols in higher crime areas.

Tommy Tucker can be reached at Tommy@Chestnuthilllocal.com.