Summit Crime: By The Numbers

SUMMIT, NJ — Police Chief Ryan Peters addressed the community on Jan. 20 with an update on crime in the city through 2025.

The report detailed trends and changes beginning in 2022 in five categories: violent crime, assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft.

The numbers, as detailed by federal reporting standards, cover initial reports and allegations that are counted until proven otherwise.

Each of the statistics is logged based on the most severe criminal activity in each case.

Violent crime includes homicides (0), rape (0), attempted rape (10), robbery (3), and aggravated assault (11).

The 24 violent crime cases reported are more than double each of the single-year statistics over the last three years.

Most cases were either reported from healthcare facilities that have a duty to report sexual assault allegations or domestic violence situations.

The assault field, which decreased by 20 cases year-over-year to 59 in 2025, covers simple assaults like smacking or punching someone.

The recording under the burglary category only covers burglaries and attempted burglaries to households. There were 10 cases recorded in 2025, following 18 in 2024.

Larcenies covers situations like shoplifting, not fraud theft, and is down by more than 50 year-over-year to 83.

The number of motor vehicle thefts in the city stood firm at 15.

"I was hopeful we'd be in the single digits," said Peters.

More than half of these cases were reported at two car dealerships, such as employees stealing keys.

"I am hopeful for the future when it comes to motor vehicle thefts that we will get in the single digits...but, I am pleased that we are trending in the right direction," added Peters.

Police conducted 8,099 motor vehicle stops last year, a number that Peters said is "encouraging" and up quite a bit from the historic average.

"We have a very young police department, a lot of young officers. They're out there, they're being proactive," he added.

Of the 8,099, there were 5,303 total summonses that were issued.

"We do use discretion...the vast majority of motor vehicle stops...we're educating the public, we're advising them of their wrongdoing, and we're sending them on their way," Peters said. "Most of the people we do pull over are residents, so we try to have common courtesy."

He added that anybody who has a history of offenses typically gets less discretion.

The Summit Police received 52,478 calls for service in 2025.

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