Farmington Hills Fire Chief Jon Unruh presents the department's annual report at Monday's city council meeting.

Farmington Hills has gotten a reputation — expressed on several websites designed for the purpose — of being one of the state's safest communities.

The city's police and fire chiefs presented numbers, some of them historically low, they say show why that reputation is deserved.

Police Chief Charles Nebus and Fire Chief Jon Unruh presented their departments' respective annual reports at Monday's city council meeting and some of the numbers in those reports were record-setting.

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"Serious crime is down to its lowest in 39 years," Nebus told city council members, and a crowded meeting room. "Farmington Hills enjoys a longstanding reputation as one of Michigan’s safest cities. Various research companies last year ranked Farmington Hills the third safest city in Michigan, the third best city in the state to raise kids, the best place to live in Michigan, according to Time magazine, and one of the top five safest cities to retire in America."

According to Nebus, crime was well down in 2017:

• Burglaries: There were 124, down 16 percent from 2016. Nebus said it was the "lowest in our 44-year history."
• Sexual assaults: There were 27, the second lowest total since 1995.
• Armed robberies: There were 16, the fifth lowest total in the department's 44-year history. That compares to an annual average of 31; the highest was 49 in 1975.
• Larceny from autos: There were 346, down 16 percent. For comparison, the average yearly total is 669, with a high of 1,102 in 1994.
• Homicide: There was only one. Police arrested 16-year-old Muhammed Al-Tantawi and charged him with the murder of his mother.
• Human trafficking: Nebus said there were nine such incidents, one involving a home, the other eight in local motels. He said none of the victims were local residents.

"Every situation involved some kind of social media," Nebus said. "The one common denominator was all the women are addicted to some kind of drugs, primarily heroin."

• There were 77 auto thefts, the third-lowest total in history.
• The department responded to 3,102 auto crashes. Two involved fatalities, one pedestrian and one bicyclist.

It was a busy year for the department, which handled 46,860 dispatched runs and 41,964 non-emergency calls, while dealing with 55,373 emergency 9-1-1 calls, some 151 per day.

Nebus also recounted the community contacts the department's officers make:

• Among its other activities, the Crime Prevention Section works with 55 neighborhood watch groups and eight apartment associations. The section coordinated 114 events in 2017.
• The department works with the Goodfellows, serves meals to seniors, sponsors the Farmington Public Schools Turn Around Awards and participates in numerous other Community Connection programs.

 Mayor Ken Massey (and the rest of the council) applauded the department's efforts.

"Crime is down and one of the reasons is our police department engages with the community," Massey said.

Fire stats

Unruh said his 117-person department (52 career, 65 paid on-call) responded to 9,524 incidents in 2017, up more than 300 from the year before. Fire department incidents are up nearly 31 percent since 2010.

"I'm very proud of the work we've done," Unruh said. "We've grown and adapted and we continue to perform the mission the citizens expect of us."

In 2017, that mission performance included:

• More than 6,000 EMS runs, about 63 percent of the department's total responses.
• Firefighters transported 4,797 patients to hospitals, with more than 3,200 to Beaumont, Farmington Hills.
• Saved the lives of 10 cardiac arrest patients, the vast majority of whom were over age 55.

"Ten survivors walked out of the hospital physically and neurologically intact," Unruh said.

• Firefighters dealt with 136 total fires, well below the national average of 176. Of  those, 40 were structure fires, also below the national avrerage. Most of the structure fires were caused by kitchen mishaps, smoking materials or unattended candles, Unruh said.
• The fires the city did experience in 2017 caused more property damage than 2016 fires. In 2017, the city experienced nearly $8.6 million in total loss, compared to some $2.8 million in 2016.
• Firefighters were well-trained, putting in some 22,000 hours of training.
• The department engaged the community, conducting a number of station tours Unruh called "very popular," along with drawing thousands more visitors to the annual open house by moving it from Friday afternoon to Saturday.
• The department also engaged in recruiting efforts that drew an initial 11 potential new firefighters. Unruh said three of those resigned from the process after the first week, while three entered the class already holding EMT or paramedic licenses and another five earned the designation in the class.

The efforts didn't go unnoticed by council members.

"It's challenging to recruit new members, especially in the way police and fire are viewed these days," council member Valerie Knol said. "That's a shame. But I want to compliment both chiefs for your efforts."

Contact Brad Kadrich at bkadrich@hometownlife.com. Follow him on Twitter: @bkadrich.