Jim Thorpe Police Department released its year-end statistics for 2015 at Thursday's borough council meeting.

Officers took 4,303 calls from the Carbon County Communications Center, down 149 from 2014."We attribute that to good police work," Mayor Michael Sofranko said. "We've really focused on battling the drug problem here in Jim Thorpe. We're actually up 10 more incidents there and it is something we will continue to focus on."Thorpe police filed 62 drug charges in 2015 and seized 1,485 bags of heroin, 343 grams of marijuana, 18 grams of THC butter, seven suboxone strips, small amounts of methamphetamine, large amounts of nonprescribed narcotic analgesics, around $12,000and one Cadillac CTS.Motorists were issued 773 traffic citations and 108 nontraffic citations."One of our big issues is traffic," Chief Joe Schatz said. "With the E-ZPass-only interchange opening on Route 903, we see different types of vehicles from passenger cars to tractor-trailers coming through town. Our officers are out there doing aggressive driving patrol and we will continue with that."The department is rolling out its electronic ticketing system with printers, scanners and touch-screen tablets in three borough cruisers.Schatz said it will eliminate the written traffic ticket, save on paperwork and increase officer safety.The system cost $10,000 and will be paid for out of proceeds from the Jim Thorpe Policemen's Ball.Officers recently changed to a 12-hour shift schedule, freeing up Schatz for more time in an administrative role after he logged 645 incidents in 2015, the most out of anyone in the department."We hired a new patrolman (Kyle Kohler) earlier this month to give the chief an opportunity to be in the office more," Councilman John McGuire said. "That is where we need him."Schatz said he, with the help of local state legislators, is researching grants for downtown kiosks to replace the current parking meters."We're just starting to talk with Global Parking Solutions about getting hardware costs for the project," he said.Council recently increased the cost of parking atborough meters from $0.50 to $1 per hour.The meters were reprogrammed Jan. 8.