A review of years of Chief of Police reports shows how many cases end in arrest, how many close through other means, and how many run out of leads entirely.
When a criminal case is marked closed, many residents assume police solved it. Seagoville Police Department records tell a more complicated story.
Monthly Chief of Police reports sort investigations into several outcomes. Those categories include arrests, exceptional clearances, suspended cases, other closures and unfounded reports.
Shop in Seagoville reviewed those reports and built a practical clearance rate from the two categories that most closely represent a solved case: arrests plus exceptional clearances.
There is a real difference between a case being closed and a case being cleared. National crime reporting standards recognize two ways an offense can be cleared.
The first is clearance by arrest. That means someone was arrested or formally charged and referred for prosecution.
The second is an exceptional clearance. Investigators identify a suspect and gather enough evidence for prosecution but cannot complete the normal arrest process.
Common reasons include the suspect’s death or a denied extradition request. A victim declining to cooperate can also qualify under certain circumstances.
Cases marked “other” or “closed” are not counted as solved in this analysis. Cases suspended for lack of leads are excluded as well.
The city’s archived reports offer several points of comparison across five reporting periods.
| Reporting Period | Cases Received | Cleared by Arrest | Exceptional | Practical Clearances | Clearance Rate | Suspended / No Leads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 (Full Year) | 1,389 | 276 | 156 | 432 | 31.1% | 388 |
| 2020 (Full Year) | 1,329 | 273 | 160 | 433 | 32.6% | 375 |
| 2021 (January through June) | 714 | 160 | 98 | 258 | 36.1% | 156 |
| 2023 (January through October) | 1,318 | 313 | 30 | 343 | 26.0% | 328 |
| 2024 (January through October) | 1,198 | 253 | 53 | 306 | 25.5% | 379 |
The 2021, 2023 and 2024 figures cover partial years rather than full calendar years. They should not be compared directly to the complete 2019 and 2020 totals.
In 2019, investigators received 1,389 cases. Police reported 276 arrests and 156 exceptional clearances.
Combined, that produced 432 practical clearances. That figure equals 31.1 percent of cases received.
The following year produced a slightly higher rate. In 2020, investigators received 1,329 cases.
Police reported 273 arrests and 160 exceptional clearances. That totals 433 clearances for a 32.6 percent rate.
The picture changes when only arrest clearances count as solved. In 2019, an arrest closed 276 of 1,389 cases.
That equals about 19.9 percent. In 2020, an arrest closed 273 of 1,329 cases, near 20.5 percent.
The mid 2021 report showed 160 arrests among 714 cases received, about 22.4 percent. Through October 2023, the arrest rate reached about 23.7 percent.
Through October 2024, the arrest rate fell to about 21.1 percent. Roughly one in five reported cases ended in an arrest across the periods studied.
That does not mean the remaining cases went ignored. Cases can stay open, clear later or reach another disposition entirely.
Clearance totals also will not always match cases received in the same period, since investigators sometimes close older cases too.
Another figure may draw just as much attention as the clearance rate: cases marked suspended or no leads.
There were 388 such cases in 2019 and 375 in 2020. Those totals equal about 27.9 percent and 28.2 percent of cases received.
The January through October 2024 report stands out. Investigators received 1,198 cases during that span.
Raw numbers cannot explain why any single case stalls. Some crimes leave far more evidence behind than others.
Surveillance video, witnesses and fingerprints can change an investigation. DNA, license plates and digital records matter too.
A theft with no witnesses presents a very different challenge than an assault where the victim already knows the offender.
The department’s reports include a category recorded as Other/Closed, and in one report it appears as Other/Closed/Records.
Those cases were left out of Shop in Seagoville’s practical clearance calculation on purpose. National standards separate an administrative closure from an official clearance.
A closed case does not always mean investigators identified a suspect. Counting those cases as solved would inflate the apparent clearance rate without solid support.
These figures are not a police department report card on their own. Clearance rates depend on crime type, available evidence and staffing levels.
Witness cooperation and caseloads also play a role. Many of those factors sit outside any investigator’s control.
The numbers also do not show the share of people arrested after committing crimes. One arrest can clear several offenses, while several arrests can sometimes relate to a single case.
Still, the historical reports answer a question that raw crime totals cannot: what happens after a case reaches Seagoville investigators?
These numbers do not settle whether Seagoville’s detectives are performing well or poorly. A fair answer would require comparing similar departments and reviewing rates by specific offense type.
But the data gives residents something more useful than speculation. It offers a real starting point for asking how often reported crimes actually get solved, and why so many investigations run out of leads to pursue.
