Despite a couple of high-profile cases, it's been a slow year for local scanner-listeners, with criminal cases dropping by more than a third in Wrangell over the previous year.

In 2014, 74 criminal cases and 36 minor offenses were processed by Wrangell's District Court. These latter included state and contested local issues, including bail scheduling, hunting and fishing citations, and traffic violations.

This is down from 112 cases processed the previous year, though the 36 minor offenses remained unchanged.

“It's been a topic of discussion,” Police Chief Doug McCloskey said of the dec...