Crime in Vestavia Hills drops 8% in 2025

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Crime in Vestavia Hills continued to drop in 2025, with the city continuing to experience an extremely low rate of violent crime, Police Chief Shane Ware said.

There were no murders (for the third year in a row), no kidnappings, no arson incidents and only one robbery in a city with a population of nearly 38,000, statistics from the Police Department show.

Assaults were down 20% from 132 in 2024 to 106 in 2025, and the number of weapons offenses fell 38% from 24 to 15.

“Our crime is so relatively low that it would take very little to skew these numbers and inflate them and make them look different,” Ware said.

Drug offenses are by far the largest major crime category in Vestavia Hills, with 617 incidents in 2025, down 2% from 629 in 2024.

However, the city did see a significant increase in the quantity of methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine that was seized in 2025, Ware said.

Most of the drug incidents in Vestavia Hills are the result of cases initiated by officers, which reflects the proactivity of patrol and narcotics officers, he said. “As chief, I like those numbers to be high because it’s a reflection of our proactivity as a department.”

Many of those cases originate from traffic stops, he said. An officer finds drugs in a traffic stop and turns the case over to the special investigations unit (which includes narcotics officers), and they work to trace the source of those drugs that have worked their way into the city, he said.

“They do a really good job of seeking out drugs that have a nexus to this community and doing what they can to eliminate those drugs,” Ware said.

Most of the drugs found in Vestavia Hills lead back to larger-scale distribution drug-trafficking seizures outside of the city, he said. When executing those narcotics search warrants, officers often find illegal weapons as well, he said. Police are seeing more weapons with Glock switches, which turn semiautomatic weapons into fully automatic machine guns, he said.

“We’re doing our part to combat that,” Ware said.

In 2025, the Vestavia Hills Police Department also partnered with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and its National Integrated Ballistic Information Network to test all of the firearms stored in the Police Department’s evidence room for potential use in crimes in other jurisdictions. So far, they have found four firearms that were used in crimes in other jurisdictions, Ware said.

Vestavia Hills did see a significant increase in the number of DUI cases, which rose from 87 in 2024 to 116 in 2025 (a 33% increase). Ware said he doesn’t believe there are more people driving drunk. Instead, he believes his officers are getting better at spotting it and successfully proving it.

The Police Department has “drug recognition experts” who are very good at telling whether someone is driving under the influence of alcohol only or under the influence of alcohol combined with other substances, such as prescription or illegal drugs, he said. It’s easy to prove a DUI with alcohol only, but proving a DUI case involving combined substances is more challenging, he said.

Because violent crime is historically low in Vestavia Hills, one of the main crime categories the Police Department tracks from year to year is burglaries, the chief said. That tends to be a pretty good indicator of the overall safety of the community, he said.

The number of burglaries in Vestavia Hills dropped slightly from 24 in 2024 to 22 in 2025, which is the second lowest number of burglaries in recent years, Ware said.

The number of vehicles stolen dropped 50% from 20 in 2024 to 10 in 2025, and thefts from vehicles were down 28% from 58 to 42. Fraud cases were up 6% from 106 to 112. About 85% of vehicle break-in cases in Vestavia Hills involve vehicles that were unlocked, Ware said.

Thefts and fraud cases are higher in Vestavia Hills because it’s a relatively affluent community, he said. “We do a good job of investigating those.”

While DUI arrests are up, the number of traffic crashes in Vestavia Hills fell 24% from 1,050 in 2024 to 799 in 2025. That’s especially significant considering there were 343,000 vehicles on the major thoroughfares in the city (Interstate 65, Interstate 459, U.S. 280 and U.S. 31) in 2025, Ware said. Those numbers don’t include the feeder and less-traveled roads.

The traffic homicide unit was called out only three times in 2025, compared to 12 times in the average year, Ware said. He attributes the decreased number of crashes and vehicle deaths to proactivity and high visibility on the part of police officers.

Police also in 2025 were working to make streets safer by putting out an eight-page micromobility guide to help officers understand the differences in laws that apply to golf carts, low-speed electric vehicles, scooters, bicycles, skateboards and other shared mobility devices, Ware said.

The number of these vehicles and mobility devices is increasing, and some people are not clear on what’s legal and what’s not, Ware said. There also are differences among communities as to what types of mobility devices are allowed on sidewalks, and every city park is governed by a different ordinance, he said.

Police are using these micromobility guides not so much for enforcement, but to correct certain behaviors of young kids and educate parents as well, Ware said.

The police chief also said that police have used some video surveillance in city parks to help correct problems, such as someone staying overnight. City Manager Jeff Downes noted that the new pedestrian bridge over U.S. 31 has a security camera, and a new camera has been installed at Wald Park, with live feeds directly to the police desk sergeant’s office. These cameras allow for quicker response to questionable behavior in the park, Downes said.

Ware said these tools are a result of the combined efforts of police, the Parks and Leisure Services Department and the city’s information technology staff.

“We continue to explore options, and we’re always looking for better ways to make our public spaces more safe and secure,” Ware said.