“We’re seeing a little bit of an increase in our gun violence,” Dan Molland, a captain with the Beloit Police Department, said. “It’s critically important, at this stage of the trend that we’re seeing, for us to come together with the community to try to stop the violence from occurring.”
Beloit isn’t alone in seeing more violent crime recently. CNN reports major cities in the U.S. saw homicides increase by 33% in 2020.
Molland said experts have a theory about why the uptick is happening now.
“A lot of it, they say, can be addressed to the whole COVID-19 stuff that, you know, people have been cooped up in their residence not being able to be outside,” he said.