OWENSVILLE —Owensville Police Chief Scott Griffith released his 2025 year-end report this week, reviewing the department’s community involvement, training, equipment upgrades and overall activity. He also outlined goals for the coming year including a continued focus on efficiency, morale and community trust.

Raised first in the information memorandum provided to the Board of Aldermen were community-focused events and activities OPD participated in last year — including raising an astounding $24,000 in funds for the Shop With a Hero holiday assistance program.

A total of 63 area children were able to participate in the winter event where they were partnered with a local first responder to go shopping for gifts.

Left over funds raised will be applied to future events such as OPD’s annual Easter Egg Hunt.

Other events OPD participated in this year included a trunk-or-treat for Halloween, end-of-school carnival, dunking booth, barbecue fundraisers, Owensville High School football tailgates, the Gasconade County Fair parade, the Owensville Parade of Lights and Night Out with Santa along with several other community and school events.

In the memo, Griffith then shared that several officers have completed in-person training throughout the year to include taser instructor, School Resource Officer (SRO) and Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.), supervisor, investigator, firearms, MIRMA virtual academy and online legal training.

One full time officer was hired during 2025 and the department remains fully staffed.

With the recent purchase of a 2026 Dodge Durango that awaits outfitting, OPD closes out its year with a full fleet of vehicles.

OPD also upgraded their equipment to include tasers, body cameras and fleet cameras that are fully in service.

Griffith shared that OPD continues to participate in Gasconade County Backstoppers, the Crisis Intervention Team and other organizations.

During the month of December, OPD handled 29 walk-ins during business hours, 11 summons issued, 34 total cases, 44 traffic stops and 398 dispatched calls, traffic stops and all other assigned situations.

In 2025, OPD handled 428 walk-ins, issued 287 summons, handled 535 cases, conducted or assisted with 1,019 traffic stops and 6,379 dispatched calls, traffic stops and all other assigned situations.

Results of the traffic stops included 70 citations, 614 warnings given, 43 arrests made, no action taken on 29, other disposition for 82 and an unknown disposition on 37.

The highest amount of tickets issued in 2025 were for no insurance, totaling 39, next was failure to register at 31, shoplifting at 28 followed by nuisance at 20. Violations for which city tickets were issued in amounts in the teens included stealing at 17, no license and peace disturbance both at 12, trespassing at 11 and driving while revoked or suspended and disorderly conduct both at 10.

Investigations completed included sexual assault, domestic assault, stealing, burglary, fraud, drug violations and more leading to charges filed at the state and municipal level. Several search warranty were also executed.

Griffith provided a comparison for dispatch call summaries from 2024 and 2025 with a total increase of 8.9-percent. City tickets decreased 24.5 percent from 380 to 287 and 11-percent fewer reports were handled going from 601 to 535.

As for 2026, Griffith shared several plans.

“Our main goal is to continue becoming an efficient department where employee morale is high and citizens feel heard by the department,” he said in the memo.

In 2026, OPD plans to once again host the Easter Egg Hunt and Shop With a Hero program, participate in the Halloween trunk-or-treat, end of school carnival, Owensville High School tailgates, Gasconade County Fair, Owensville Parade of Lights and Night Out with Santa and other community and school events.

Griffith seeks to continue to conduct online and in-person training to ensure compliance with POST and MIRMA along with two firearms training.

He also wants to continue to improve the technology for officers to use such as in-car cameras. OPD intends on purchasing one additional in-car camera this year, with partial funding to be sought through a grant through MIRMA.

Once the Durango is equipped, the supervisor and school resource officer will be able to take their vehicles home as they live within city limits.

OPD will continue to work with Lake Area Narcotics Enforcement Group (LANEG), participate in Gasconade County Backstoppers, the Crisis Intervention Team and any other community groups as needed, continue the School Resource Officer contract with Gasconade County R-2 School District –– launching new programs like D.A.R.E. –– and will continue to listen to concerns raised by citizens.

Griffith also seeks to increase all employees’ pay to remain competitive.