The Whitehall Police Department had a busy year in 2012.

The department released its annual activity report earlier this month and statistics show a significant increase in the number of incidents to which they responded.

“We were up about 40 percent on business,” said Chief Matt Dickinson.

According to the report, the department responded to a total of 1,752 incidents last year and the number of arrests increased by 13 from 165 in 2011 to 178 last year.

Dickinson said the reasons for the increases are two-fold.

“The calls were more frequent, meaning obviously there was more crime. But with a proper sized police department we were able to handle more cases,” he said.

Although the number of full-time officers remained the same, the department hired several part-time officers, which helped provide better coverage.

Most of the incidents involved traffic violations, with officers writing a total of 1,160 tickets. But there was also a high volume of domestic incidents (109) and motor vehicle accidents (65). Officers also arrested nine people for driving while intoxicated and responded to more than 20 drug or alcohol related incidents.

And a busy stretch last summer led to several significant arrests, including those of Sean Kramer and Madeline Rosario, each of whom was arrested last July for the sale of narcotics. Both have either been convicted or agreed to plea deals and will spend time in prison.

Officer Timothy Hardy also pointed out the department engaged in several community outreach initiatives that kept them busy year.

The department participated in the Drug Enforcement Agency’s National Takeback days which allowed citizens to drop off expired or unused medications for safe and proper disposal. It also ran a successful House Watch program, initiated a bicycle registration program, provided gun locks, free of charge, to local residents, and automated its records division to improve access to materials on-line.

“We do a lot more than just write parking tickets,” Hardy said. “We try to be preventive instead of always being reactive.”

All of those programs and a few others are expected to continue this year.

To view the department’s annual report, visit www.whitehallpolice.org.