2020 Ocean City police stats show crime increasing

OCEAN CITY, Md. – Crime in a popular Maryland tourist destination spiked in 2020 for the first time in five years, according to police statistics.

An annual report from the Ocean City Police Department showed a 21% increase in Part 1 crime, which includes rape, robbery, assault and other offences, the Salisbury Daily Times reported Wednesday.

“The year 2020 was a challenging time, not just for Ocean City, but the entire community as we fought our way through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” Police Chief Ross Buzzuro said.

The largest spikes occurred in assaults, according to the report. Simple assaults rose from 698 in 2019 to 819 last year, and aggravated assaults jumped from 66 to 116 in 2020, the newspaper reported.

There were no reported homicides in Ocean City last year, consistent since 2017, according to the report.